This week: Matt Rizzetta, Founder of Underdog Global Partners, shares how he’s building a multi-team sports investment platform that combines club ownership, real estate development, and media IP. His portfolio is active in Italy and Canada, including Campobasso FC, Napoli Basket, Donna Roma, and CPL Quebec, with visions for a basketball arena near the Amalfi Coast and a youth academy modelled after IMG.
This is how Matt is building Underdog Global Partners:
Own multiple sports teams across Italy and Canada, including men’s and women’s soccer and professional basketball with underdog spirits.
Invest in real estate tied to sports assets, including visions for an arena near the Amalfi Coast and residence/prep school youth academy
Expand media reach through storytelling, content partnerships, and the ESPN/Disney docuseries Running With the Wolves
Create synergies in sponsorship, tourism, and talent mobility across markets in Europe and North America
Why does this matter?? Matt’s model of owning teams, developing talent, investing in real estate, and producing media is the first of its kind in italian sports (RedBird focuses on big-name clubs and media deals, while Matt builds from undervalued teams with untapped intellectual property potential).
👇 Scroll down for the full breakdown + my personal thoughts of the build.
What is Underdog Global Partners? Private equity firm investing in sports, media, real estate, and experiences:
Invest in real estate tied to sports assets, including arenas and training centers
Produce original media content, including a docuseries with ESPN and Disney
Create synergies across clubs, properties, and platforms to grow enterprise value
Why invest in clubs located in Rome, Naples, Campobasso, Quebec, Brooklyn? Calcio turismo is a growing trend where fans travel to experience matches, explore cities, and engage with regional heritage. Rome and Naples saw 20M+ tourism arrivals in 2024. (this strategy places teams in culturally rich, underutilized markets where sport drives tourism, media, and real estate.)
Youth & Community? UGP invests in clubs rooted in underdog communities & modest backgrounds. Communities with heart, history, and untapped potential. This multi-club model builds cross-border pathways for players, coaches, and staff, creating opportunities from Montreal to Campobasso to Donna Roma.
What is the Revenue Model? UGP is the result of 5–6 years of direct investment, operations, and storytelling in sport, Matt invested personal capital to acquire clubs, build infrastructure, and scale media platforms (listen to our conversation). For UGP, emotional ROI is paramount because as Matt shared on our episode, sport builds relationships, access, and life-changing experiences. A single asset may yield 15–20x returns when activated across media, real estate, and tourism. Our conversarion explained how investing in sport requires a holistic view, where the true value emerges from activating multiple layers of opportunity beyond the core asset.
“Sport isn’t just about IRR. It’s about building an ecosystem of talent, relationships, and experiences that compound across media, real estate, and tourism. That’s where the real return lives.”
My Thoughts & Future Outlook
I recently read an EY Report on the TMT sector which stated experiential entertainment is projected to surpass $350B by 2030, driven by demand for immersive, next-generation destinations. Matt’s strategy is important to understand because it creates for fans the ability to travel and create life changing experiences through sports. Combine it with talent development pipelines for academic & athletic growth. exciting times are ahead if more foreign owners adopt this approach. Alcione Milano’s owner(we spoke in March here), who is a former HBS Alumni and CEO of SRI Group (Private Equity), is also developing the youth with academic mentoring, scholarships and athletic development as foundational pillars for sport investment success. Exciting times are ahead as more foreign owners in italian sports adopt this approach.
2 Historic Italian Sports Teams Opportunity
If you find it interesting to learn opportunities in italian sports teams, we’re currently working with two of the most historic teams in Italian sport, one in football, one in basketball. Both have legacy fanbases (8,000+ per home game), both in top 20 most respected fan-bases in the country and infrastructure projects underway.
Let’s discuss further here: Calendly Link
Best,
Edoardo Grandi
