Changing the Game

A $10 billion sale price for the Los Angeles Lakers in June 2025. New multi-billion-dollar sports infrastructure investments popping up across the world. A wave of institutional capital focused on sports. The sports sector is experiencing significant activity, and the industry is abuzz with chatter about potential future transactions.

To address the growing market opportunity, Citi is carving out a powerful position to shape the landscape of sports finance and advisory through a blend of investment banking expertise and private wealth management.

John “Hutch” Hutcheson, who leads Citi’s Sports Advisory investment banking practice, explains, “Strategically we focus on the heart of the sports ecosystem, which is the teams and the leagues. How do we reach existing team owners and how do we reach future team owners? We want to be firmly positioned at the intersection of buyers and sellers of sports assets.”

To make these connections, it is critical that our team leverages Citi’s vast global network, including senior leaders across the firm. Most sports team owners have generated wealth in other sectors, so sports can act as a strategic hook to build new relationships or enhance existing ones.

As Ivo Voynov — who leads the debt financing arm of our Sports Finance team within Wealth — puts it, sports assets tend to take up 90% of an owner’s mindshare, “even if they're not a big part of an owner's net worth, even if they've made their wealth in some other industry.”

Our Wealth lending business distributes capital among the four major U.S. sports leagues — football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey — and various team ownership groups.

Ivo likens the importance of the Wealth relationship to opening doors: “The coverage universe is vast and doesn't necessarily fit in the model that the Investment Bank is doing by focusing on corporates. Our Wealth business is critical in identifying the connectivity with the [team] owners.”

Together, John and Ivo serve some of the world’s wealthiest audiences — individuals and families who invest in sports as an asset class. They advise leagues, teams and aspiring team owners on M&A and capital-raising transactions.

Citi is making a move to become a big-league player in this space. “Increasingly, if you are looking to invest in sports or you're looking to optimize the sports assets you already have, we should be at the table,” says John. “We provide the power of a massive multi-disciplinary global bank wrapped in the intimacy of a boutique.”

The evolution of Citi's sports strategy

As our influence in the sports sector grows, transactions that were once handled by the Private Bank for individual clients have evolved into multi-billion-dollar transactions for teams and related industries. And we’re increasingly focused on league-level relationships as a strategic source of lead generation for new deals.

While individual team transactions are major opportunities, they are rare — teams don’t go up for sale very often. League-level relationships allow Citi to lay the groundwork for a broader, continuous book of work. “League executives and commissioners are important decision makers and influencers that have broader impact beyond just the league itself,” says John.

Take the National Hockey League. Since 2022, Citi has served as strategic advisor to the league, helping the league navigate some of its most pressing issues, including the Diamond Sports bankruptcy and the evolving M&A chessboard impacting the league’s large-cap media partners. 

Collaboration between the Investment Bank and the Private Bank is critical to our success in sports. The Private Bank acts as a vital funnel that identifies and nurtures relationships with current and prospective team owners, while the Investment Bank provides qualified Wealth clients with access to sports deal flows and differentiated insights on the broader sports sector. This collaboration allows us to understand the unique needs of these individuals, whether they are looking to buy, sell or invest in sports properties.

For instance, several years ago private banker Hasan Shirazi connected our banking team with the owner of a major NHL team. John recalls, “Hasan said, ‘[My client is] considering selling the team. He wants to bring in an investment bank to advise him on that. Can you guys meet him and pitch for the business?’ Which we did, which we won. And we then executed the deal successfully. Hasan was happy, his client was happy and it was a good win for the firm.”

Dawn Nordberg, Head of Integrated Client Solutions within Citi Wealth, sees the Sports Advisory and Financing group as a prime example of the power of collaboration within Citi.

“By bringing the Investment Bank's specialized sports expertise and the Private Bank's deep client relationships and wealth management offerings to the table, we’re connecting clients with strategic opportunities in unmatched ways,” Dawn says. "I recently had the chance to work with Ivo and John as our Banking and Wealth experts identified and targeted buyers for a minority stake in an NBA team. It was evident how much the client valued our guidance and how cross-firm collaboration is helping us win new and greater mandates.”

The collaboration reflects Citi’s broader push to scale sports as a priority segment. Since joining as Head of Citi Private Bank North America in May 2025, Chris Biotti — who brings firsthand experience as a former NHL player with the Calgary Flames — has been focused on deepening connectivity across Banking and Wealth. That alignment is strengthening the firm’s ability to serve team owners, investors and executives across the sports ecosystem.

“As our ultra-high-net-worth clients continue to diversify their portfolios and view sports ownership not only as a growing asset class, but also as a personal passion, this represents a significant area of focus for our team,” says Chris.

Expanding the playing field

The sports industry is being shaped by an increase in global institutional investment, notably through sovereign wealth funds and private equity.

Citi has been actively advising sovereign wealth funds on sports transactions, leveraging our global footprint and longstanding relationships with global sovereigns. Select transactions include advising Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) on its acquisition of Newcastle United in the English Premier League and advising PIF on its investment into DAZN, a global sports streaming platform.

“For sovereign wealth funds, sports offer a distinctive combination of attractive long-term growth fundamentals, financial returns and strategic alignment with domestic priorities that set the basis for long-term value creation,” says Hamza Girach, Head of MEA Investment Banking.

What's next

Whether in the stands or in the clubhouse, driving this business is a team effort.

And Ivo and John recognize the value of word of mouth and personal connections. ”With increased investment interest in the sports sector, the most effective approach to coverage involves fostering firm-wide collaboration to leverage personal relationships with key decision makers,” says Ivo. “A casual query can quickly lead to major business opportunities. We’re eager to help make the connection.”