Tech Investors Turn to Football as AI Drives Search for Human-Centred Assets

By Benson Daniel

Technology investors are increasingly looking towards football and other live sporting assets as they search for businesses and experiences that are difficult to replicate through artificial intelligence.

The growing interest was highlighted by a now abandoned investment proposal involving the World Cup, which attracted attention from technology investors seeking exposure to the global football industry.

The thinking behind the investment was based on the belief that certain assets possess qualities that technology cannot easily reproduce. Live sport, particularly football, brings together physical competition, emotional engagement, unpredictable outcomes and large global audiences.

These characteristics make the sport attractive to investors at a time when artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming industries that once depended heavily on human creativity and labour.

According to the BBC report, Thrive Eternal, an investment arm created by New York based Thrive Capital, was established with a strategy focused on businesses and assets with qualities that cannot be replicated by technology. Football became an important part of that investment thinking.

The World Cup was particularly attractive because of its extraordinary global reach. The tournament brings together national teams, millions of spectators and one of the largest audiences in international sport, creating commercial opportunities across broadcasting, sponsorship, advertising, hospitality and digital platforms.

For technology investors, such characteristics offer a form of scarcity that is difficult for artificial intelligence to eliminate.

AI can generate images, write content, produce music and increasingly perform tasks that once required significant human labour. However, it cannot simply manufacture the atmosphere of a packed stadium or reproduce the emotional connection supporters have with their national teams.

Football also benefits from its unpredictability. While technology can analyse matches, study players and assist coaches, it cannot completely determine the outcome of a live game. Human decisions, mistakes, individual brilliance and unexpected events remain central to the sport.

This has encouraged some investors to view major sporting properties as potentially defensive assets in an increasingly automated economy.

The interest in football also reflects the broader transformation of the sports business. Technology is already deeply embedded in modern football through performance analysis, scouting, broadcasting, ticketing, fan engagement and commercial operations.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to analyse large volumes of football data and help clubs make decisions about players and tactics.

Rather than making football irrelevant, however, technological advances could increase the value of the human elements that make the sport attractive.

The ability to watch a match unfold in real time and share the experience with millions of other supporters remains fundamentally different from consuming computer generated entertainment.

For investors, this distinction could become increasingly important as AI continues to reshape the media and entertainment industries.

The abandoned World Cup investment proposal therefore raises a wider question about where investors will place capital as artificial intelligence changes the value of traditional businesses and intellectual property.

Football may not be completely AI proof. The sport itself is already adopting artificial intelligence and other technologies at a rapid pace. But its core appeal remains rooted in human competition, community and emotion.

Those characteristics could make major sporting events increasingly attractive to investors looking for assets that retain their value in an economy where technology can reproduce many forms of digital content at increasingly low cost.

The World Cup’s global audience and unique cultural position make it one of the clearest examples of this trend.

As artificial intelligence continues to transform investment strategies, football’s value may increasingly lie not only in the business generated by the sport but also in the human experiences that technology cannot easily replace.