A raucous Steph Curry tour and gobs of Chinese government stimulus sparked sporting goods makers Under Armour and Amer Sports to double-digit gains in September, helping lead the Sportico Sports Stock Index to its highest level in 13 months.
The Sportico index closed the month at 1,260, its highest level since summer 2023, as 28 of the 40 sports stocks in the index posted gains in September. Sporting goods and sports betting led the top performers.
While Under Armour (UAA) has been in some form of retreat for years—it has largely exited college sports sponsorship and is dumping a California distribution center as part of a restructuring that will cost the business about $150 million—the company remains heavily invested in mainland China. More than half its 1,900 stores worldwide are in Asia, and most of those are in China, including the first Curry Brand House, which opened in mid-September in the city of Chengdu. With the opening, the basketball star went on a China tour promoting the shop and Under Armour generally.
“We’re generating brand heat through social media and activations leading to millions of new followers and thousands of new member enrollments in just a few days,” said Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank in an August preview of the trip. “Hopefully [the tour]… will be a bit of a fuse for getting the region going or at least remind people we’re there.”
The tour was so eagerly received by fans that Curry was swarmed at multiple stops, leading to some events being canceled and one city being skipped altogether as the Chinese government worried about overcrowding, according to an SFGate report. Add a massive dose of government stimulus last week to goose the struggling Chinese economy, and September was a bright spot for Under Armour stock, which is less than a fifth of its peak value of last decade. In the month, UAA rallied 16% to close at $8.91.
Similarly, expectations Chinese consumers would open up their wallets backed by government stimulus rallied Amer Sports (AS), up 17% to $15.95 in the month. Like Under Armour, Amer has a significant business in North America—it owns a few baseball brands like Louisville Slugger and DeMarini—but China drives the business. Amer brands including Wilson, Salomon and outdoor gear maker Arc’teryx have huge markets in mainland China, and so the stimulus rallied shares of the billionaire-backed conglomerate. Amer was the best performer of the 40-stock Sportico Sports Stock Index in September, its second straight month pacing sports stocks.
Eight of the index’s components posted double-digit gains for the month, including four sports betting businesses: Rush Street Interactive (RSI, up 16%), DraftKings (DKNG, up 14%), Flutter Entertainment (FLUT, up 12%) and Caesars Entertainment (CZR, up 11%). The orderly betting start to NFL season encouraged Wall Street, as New York state data indicated bets on games were up 21% year-over-year and that margins seemed higher as sports books seemed to balance favorites and spreads well, according to Jefferies gaming stock analyst Simon Thackray.
Flutter Entertainment, which owns FanDuel, the market share leader in U.S. sports betting, increased its estimate of the total addressable North American market, saying the U.S. and Canada should be a $70 billion legal betting market by 2030. “Higher than expected player values and iGaming penetration were the underlying drivers of the increase, with no changes to assumptions around new state launches,” wrote Thackray in a report published Sunday.
In addition to a good NFL start, betting stocks are also helped by the cut in interest rates, which is supportive to consumer spending as well as a good couple of months in Las Vegas casinos after July was unexpectedly weak in Sin City, according to Jefferies.
Sports stocks weren’t positive across the board in September, however, with most sports team-owning enterprises slipping in the market. The Atlanta Braves (BATRA) eased the most, dropping 8% with the team’s postseason’s fortune still up in the air when trading ended Monday.
The worst performing component of the Sportico Sports Stock Index was Vivid Seats (SEAT). The ticket broker lost 20% of its value in September as analysts worried about a lack of supply to feed Vivid’s core business of reselling tickets to concerts and sports events. Vivid was more reliant than other ticket brokers on Taylor Swift and Beyoncé in 2023 to generate sales and is suffering from a lack of stadium-sized concerts this summer.
Also declining in the month was sports-centric streaming bundler Fubo (FUBO), which lost 15%, surrendering much of the gains it got from an August court injunction on Venu, the sports bundling service from Walt Disney (DIS, up 6%), Fox (FOX, up 2%) and Warner Brothers Discovery. The injunction is keeping Venu from launching, and is expected to stay in place until a trial decides the matter, something that won’t happen before 2025. Venu appeared to get some traction in litigation last week as six state attorneys general filed briefs in support of the lifting the injunction.
The Sportico Sports Stock Index is a basket of 40 U.S-traded stock that rely on sports for much of their growth. The index was formed in August 2020 at 1,000, and it is up 26% since and 10% in 2024. The index is equal weighted, meaning each stock starts out at 2.5% of the index’ value, with each stock being reset to that level quarterly. To be included in the index, stocks must also be traded on a U.S. exchange in sufficient volume and maintain and market capitalization over $50 million.
