00:00Well, that's exactly what I was going to say. I mean, you think about potential catalysts here.
00:05Talk to us about how that lands within this portfolio, which, I mean, you take a look at your top industry groups, entertainment, media, software.
00:13So obviously no publicly listed NFL teams, but we do benefit on the media partners side of the house.
00:20We do own Comcast, for example, which did quite well, both between the Olympics on NBC and with Peacock.
00:27So they're a beneficiary. The bigger event, however, is the biggest media event in the world.
00:33And that comes with the World Cup football known to the rest of the world.
00:39And that we think will increase the interest in soccer here in the U.S.
00:43So these are all publicly traded companies. But if you were to and you could get a hold of some private companies, is that something you would consider?
00:50No, we're looking. There are plenty of other funds, firms that do that.
00:54We're trying to differentiate ourselves. Total liquidity, which is what we're offering here, and transparency.
01:00So this would be what we call a member of the Lazarus list, where somebody goes and resurrects an ETF idea that didn't make it.
01:08Now, this happened twice, right? So what makes you think you can make it successful where the other people failed?
01:14So when I started covering the media industry 23 years ago, I was serendipitous in that I covered the Dolan companies,
01:21which, of course, had the Madison Square Garden companies, and then Liberty Media, which sprang forth Formula One, the Braves, and Live Nation.
01:31So there's a lot more public companies today than there were many years ago.
01:36And we've been investing in these companies. Our clients have been investing in these companies for over 20 years.
01:39And it's interesting. If I go down the list here of your holdings, I don't necessarily see DraftKings or Flutter, which owns FanDuel.
01:48Was that a conscious decision?
01:50Yeah. And, you know, we obviously are trying to apply. This is active advantage, as Eric mentioned.
01:54And we are trying to apply our value lens to that. Obviously, a lot of controversy around those betting names.
02:01And, you know, there could be investments in the future. They aren't today.
02:05How are you hedging currency exposure if you are investing in companies overseas?
02:09So we're not. We're not doing that today. Obviously, foreign companies, including the and especially the foreign listed soccer clubs, are in this fund.
02:19But not something we've done to date.
02:22What's the stock in here people will be surprised that is doing so well?
02:25Well, actually, one of the one of the stocks that may be surprising is Rogers Communications, one of our larger holdings.
02:31And actually, sports assets, they own the Blue Jays, the Raptors and the Maple Leafs, of course, as well as the football club in Toronto.
02:40It's about half the value of that otherwise telecommunications converged operator.
02:45And we think that those sports assets are probably going to come public as a standalone entity sometime this year.
02:50So it's a little bit of a hidden sports play.
02:53And so as Eric mentioned, I mean, you just launched this fund.
02:56It's scarcely more than a month old.
02:58But who did you launch it for when you were putting this together?
03:03What intended audience did you have in mind?
03:05So this was really supposed to be a retail product for the average person.
03:09It's got a brokerage account who wants to pick up on what the ultra wealthy have been doing for many, many years, obviously, and benefiting from the growth in sports.
03:18One thing that has surprised me is the number of calls we've gotten from family offices.
03:21There's just about every family office out there wants to participate.
03:24If you've got enough money, if you're big enough, you can participate directly through an LP stake or buying a whole team.
03:30Or you can participate in a private equity fund for big fees.
03:34A lot of them are interested in a diversified portfolio for, as we said, zero fees, at least for now.
03:39Would you consider adding a company like KKR, which has just acquired Arctos Partners?
03:43Something that we've looked at.
03:44Obviously, there are some derivative plays that we're considering.
03:47So that would be one.
03:49CVC, another publicly traded private equity firm, has a big interest in sports for all the same reasons that we do.
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