Souring consumer sentiment knocked sports stocks back 4% in February, as apparel and gear makers bore the brunt of a market wide slump.
The Sportico Sports Stock Index slipped 62 points in February, ending at 1,415 and failing to follow through on a scorching start to 2025. The index declined more than the broad market, which dropped a little more than 1% in the month, as consumer discretionary stocks across the board dragged down the S&P 500. Most sports stocks fit into the consumer discretionary category.
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“After a strong 2023 and ’24, ’25 follows one of the best retail environments ever seen. However, heightened uncertainty, tougher comps and a less robust consumer, combined with increasing inventories and peaking margins could spell trouble for consumer discretionary in 2025,” Jefferies analyst Randal Konik said in a late February research note. “Although metrics point to general consumer health, consumers remain selective in their spending behavior… prioritizing non-discretionary items and moderating big-ticket spending in non-essential categories.”
While there are a number of factors playing into weaker discretionary stocks—global freight rates are higher due to conflict in the Red Sea area, and many companies face a tougher climb to top their excellent 2024 sales—it is mainly consumer worries about inflation that are dragging stocks lower, according to Konik. Weaker sentiment has caused the dollar to drop relative to foreign currencies, creating headwinds for Under Armour (UAA, down 15% in February) and Topgolf Callaway Brands (MODG, down 20%), two of the worst Sportico index performers in the month. The tariffs being implemented by President Donald Trump also add concern, even though for most sports-related organizations they’re not especially impactful; tariffs on China-sourced goods will cost Topgolf Callaway about $5 million in 2025, for instance. Still, sneaker maker On Holdings (ONON down 22%) and Amer Sports (AS, down 8%) were other losers with notable exposure to tariffs.
Sports-centric streamer Fubo (FUBO) saw the largest decline of any stock last month, shedding 31%. The drop largely came Friday when the company issued weaker guidance for the current quarter, with subscriber count slipping about 4% year-over-year largely as a result of Fubo losing the ability to offer Univision and Discovery channels. Wall Street analysts also expressed some concern about the potential effect of ESPN not renewing its deal with Major League Baseball after this year and how that might affect Fubo’s ability to offer baseball games once it is majority-owned by Disney in a planned merger of Fubo and Disney streaming assets.
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“The primary goal is to continue distributing live channels,” Fubo CEO David Gandler said on a conference call Friday. “Should Major League Baseball decide to go in [the] direction as it did—managing some of the local sports teams, such as the Padres—we will certainly look to figure out a way to work together.” (Fubo carried the league-produced Padres.TV in 2024 and will again this season.)
Overall, 28 of the Sportico Sports Stock Index components fell in February. Even with the monthly decline, the index is up 3% for 2025, besting the S&P which is barely up year-to-date.
Of the dozen sports stock gainers, Fox Corporation (FOX) led the pack, advancing 13% on strong 2024 results stemming from positive World Series, NFL and college football ratings, along with heavy political ad spending around the 2024 elections. The company also announced February’s Super Bowl generated more than $800 million in gross revenue.
Fox said it is benefitting from the rise in “skinny” bundles offered by DirecTV and Comcast. “Pretty much the entirety of our portfolio, our bouquet of channels, a couple of small exceptions are in those bundles,” Fox executive chairman Lachlan Murdoch said on a call with analysts at the beginning of February. “So from a Fox perspective, this [sic] is not a skinny bundle. This is a lean and mean bundle. So, it’s jacked, this bundle.”
Murdoch also said the company will offer its own direct-to-consumer streaming bundle by year’s end.
Video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA, up 12%) and Take Two (TTWO, also up 12%) rounded out the top three performers for the month. Take Two said it expects 2025 to be its best year ever, revenue-wise, as a slew of new titles make their way to market and its NBA 2K franchise showed great performance to end 2024. EA, on the other hand, is still down 12% on the year having been hammered in January on weakness in its soccer game franchise EA Sports FC, the former FIFA-branded game, and in a new role-playing title.
The Sportico Sports Stock Index is a basket of 40 companies that rely on sports for a significant portion of their future growth. The index includes sports teams such as the Atlanta Braves (BATRA, up 3%), league owners such as Pro Bowlers’ parent Lucky Strike Entertainment (LUCK, up 4%) and sports technology businesses like Sportradar (SRAD, up 1%). The index was launched on August 1, 2020, at 1,000 and is up more than 40% since. To be included in the index, stocks must trade in the U.S. in sufficient volume and maintain a market value of at least $50 million. The index is equal-weighted, which means every quarter the 40 stocks are reset to constitute 2.5% of the index weighting. Stocks are dropped and added as needed on a quarterly basis.
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