Why African Sports IP Is the Next Asset Class
The shift from athlete-as-service to athlete-as-asset is creating a new category of investable intellectual property across the continent.
Africa's sports market is now estimated at $12 billion, according to consulting firm Oliver Wyman, with projections showing it could surpass $20 billion by 2035. Yet the continent accounts for barely 1% of global sports sponsorship spending. That gap represents one of the largest arbitrage opportunities in media: the distance between audience size and monetisation.
The scale no one is pricing correctly
The 2024 Africa Cup of Nations, hosted by Ivory Coast, attracted over 1.4 billion cumulative TV viewers across its broadcast run, according to Nielsen data. The 2025 edition pushed further, reaching approximately 3.45 billion viewers across TV and digital platforms. These are Super Bowl-tier audiences. Yet the sponsorship revenue for AFCON 2023 was roughly $74.75 million -- a fraction of what comparably viewed events generate in other markets. CAF's total broadcasting rights revenue was projected at approximately $150 million for the 2024-2025 cycle, according to Reuters. Compare that to the English Premier League's $8+ billion domestic and international broadcast deals, and the disparity becomes clear.
From talent export to IP ownership
Historically, African sport has operated as a talent pipeline. Athletes are developed on the continent, then exported to European leagues, American franchises, and global tournaments. The value -- in transfer fees, image rights, broadcasting, and merchandise -- is captured almost entirely offshore. Nigerian players in the English Premier League alone generated hundreds of millions in transfer fees over the past decade. Victor Osimhen's transfer from Napoli to Galatasaray, and the broader movement of African talent across Europe, illustrates this pattern. The athletes create value; someone else owns it.
The shift is beginning. A landmark 2024 ruling by Uganda's commercial court established that the Federation of Uganda Football Associations had no authority to licence players' images without proper contracts, awarding damages to the Uganda Cranes players. In Nigeria, legal scholars at SPA Ajibade & Co. note that 'athlete branding is the process of giving an athlete a unique public identity... including the athlete's name, image, catch-phrase and even distinctive celebrations.' These developments signal a turning point: African athletes are beginning to treat their likeness, content, and stories as protectable, tradeable intellectual property.
The structural gap
The challenge is not talent. Africa has more than 225 million amateur footballers, according to the ASCI Strength in Numbers report, feeding a participation and audience pipeline that brands are eager to reach. More than 60% of the continent's 1.4 billion people are under 25. Mobile internet penetration in sub-Saharan Africa reached 320 million subscribers in 2023, contributing $140 billion to regional GDP.
What is missing is the infrastructure to convert athlete attention into structured, ownable IP. In the United States, LeBron James's SpringHill Company and the Kelce brothers' podcast empire demonstrate what happens when athletes build media businesses around their personal brands. PlayersTV, launched in 2020 and backed by Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, Travis Kelce, Dwyane Wade, and others, has become a pioneer of player-owned media. These are not endorsement deals -- they are media companies with compounding asset value.
African athletes have equivalent or greater cultural reach across the continent. What they lack are the production, distribution, and IP structuring partners to help them build the same.
Why IP, not content, is the asset
Content is perishable. An interview goes viral and is forgotten in a week. A documentary premieres and enters the archive. But a format -- a repeatable structure that can be produced season after season, licensed across markets, and adapted for different platforms -- is IP. It compounds.
When you structure a recurring sports media property around an athlete's story, with clear rights documentation, co-ownership provisions, and revenue allocation frameworks, you are not making content. You are building an asset class. One that can be valued, licensed, syndicated, and eventually exited.
The global sports media rights market surpassed $60 billion in 2024, according to SportBusiness. Africa's share of that is negligible. Not because the audience is small, but because the IP has not been structured. That is beginning to change.
The opportunity ahead
PwC's 2025 Africa Sports Outlook notes that more than 70% of African leagues now have title sponsors, up from fewer than 15% in 2010. The Basketball Africa League, a joint initiative between the NBA and FIBA, reported record attendance of 111,000 fans and 2.7 million YouTube views in its 2025 season. Infrastructure investment is following: Africa now has more than 109 stadiums with capacities above 30,000, with landmark investments like the $257 million Abidjan stadium and the $165 million Amahoro upgrade in Rwanda.
The foundation is being laid. What remains is the IP layer -- the systems, partnerships, and structures that turn attention into ownership. That is precisely where the opportunity lies for those willing to build at the intersection of African talent, media production, and intellectual property rights.