In a Billionaire Brain Trust interview, former New Orleans Saints wide receiver Marques Colston explains his new venture, Champion Venture Partners, a sports‑focused investment firm launched on January 1 2024. Colston argues that the traditional sports‑investment narrative—dominated by billionaire stakes in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS—excludes the many athletes and everyday fans who already pour money into sports through participation fees, equipment, and personal branding, yet receive no financial return. Champion Venture Partners aims to open the sports asset class to a broader investor base, including athletes, registered investment advisors, high‑net‑worth individuals, and retail investors. The firm is raising a $100 million equity round and has about $7‑8 million left to close, already deploying capital into several growth‑stage companies and conducting diligence on additional deals. Investment focus spans sports medicine, technology, emerging leagues, and a pronounced emphasis on women’s sports—particularly the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). Colston cites two converging trends driving this opportunity: a surge in alternative‑asset allocations among affluent investors and the escalating valuations of sports franchises fueled by media‑rights deals, which create downstream opportunities for emerging teams and leagues. He invites interested parties to learn more via championventurepartners.com and the firm’s social‑media channels.
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The typical conversation around investing in sports is billionaires investing into the NFL, NBA, you know, the Big Five leagues.
Sure.
There's so many people that, that have an affinity to sports and are investing into sports in some meaningful way for them, but there's no real monetary gain coming back out of it. What we want to do is take that asset class that a lot of people invest in, open up this asset class, not just to the institutional investors, not just to the high net worth and ultra high net worth. We want to open it up to athletes. We want to open up to, to the retail channel investor as well.
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Hey, so we're in Brooklyn, we're at the Family Office Club, and I'm here with Marcus Colton, former wide receiver of the Saints. Uh, you have a Super Bowl under your belt, super cool. You're in for what, 10 years?
10 years, yep.
Yeah, awesome. So I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. Tell us a little bit more, uh, about your, your professional career very briefly.
Yep.
And then we want to know what you're doing now.
Perfect. So as you, as you mentioned, I was fortunate and blessed enough I got to play 10 years, all in the NFL, with the New Orleans Saints. Fun fact, I have another 7 years of experience as an owner-operator in the Arena Football League. So I'm not old enough to where I have— I was able to kind of commingle those two, right? So I was owner-operator when I was still playing. What I'm doing now is, at the beginning of this year, we launched Champion Venture Partners, which is a sports investment firm. We invest in really across the sports landscape, looking for growth stage companies across sports medicine, sports technology. We'll eventually get into some teams and leagues, mostly emerging leagues for now, but hopefully we'll get to the Big Five leagues. But what we're doing is we're creating meaningful access to ownership in the sports asset class.
And what does that mean exactly? Is that for players to have access to ownership? Yeah, it's a regular— credit investors have access?
Yeah, it's across the board, right? So right now the typical conversation around investing in sports is billionaires investing into the NFL, NBA, you know, the Big Five leagues.
Sure.
What we want to do is take that asset class that a lot of people invest in, whether it be, you know, with their bodies like I did, whether it be, you know, through registration fees and tuition for travel and club teams like I'm doing with my kids now. There's so many people that have an affinity you know, to sports and are investing into sports in some, in some meaningful way for them, but there's no real monetary gain coming back out of it.
Yeah.
So what we want to do is open up this asset class not just to the institutional investors, not just to the, the high net worth and ultra high net worth. We want to open it up to athletes. We want to open up to, to the retail channel investor as well.
That's awesome. Are you getting— how long— you said 4 years of that business? How long has that business been?
So we literally launched, filed paperwork January 1st, 2024. So we are awesome. 10 months in.
Yeah, that's great. Are you getting a lot of excitement? Is it former athletes, other athletes that are showing interest? I mean, what's the story there with getting investors?
Yeah, I mean, there's been a lot of excitement, a lot of— we've built a lot of momentum over a pretty short amount of time. Everything from athlete investors to, you know, RIAs and high net worth individuals. So we've got a pretty diverse investor base right now. We're getting really close to closing out our $100 $100 million. We've been raising $100 million in equity. We've got about $7 or $8 million left on that, so we're looking to close that out. We've deployed into a couple companies, got another 5 or 6 in diligence right now, so we're, we're in a good position going into the close of this year to, to really, you know, be able to make some noise coming, coming into Q1 of next year.
That's cool. It's a pretty exciting asset class. Is the, the landscape sort of interested in this for, for one reason or another? Is there anything that's changing that's making it more available? 'Cause it seems like it should have been more accessible before now, right?
Yeah.
But it's not.
I think there's two things, two trends that are kind of colliding at the same time. One, you're seeing a lot of high net worth, ultra high net worth really focus more on the alternative asset class as an allocation.
Yes.
So that coupled with just the general excitement around sports, the business of sports, the valuations of these teams are, reaching all-time highs.
Yeah.
We know that the business of sports is really driven on the back of media and media rights. So the combination of the alternative asset class getting more attention from investors, the sports business kind of becoming a little bit top-heavy, and you know that that money has to start to flow downhill somewhere. So these emerging teams and these emerging leagues are really, really interesting opportunity to get in now. And watch them ascend and watch them rise to start to compete with some of the major leagues.
Yeah, it's pretty cool. I've heard a lot more conversation about WNBA investment.
Yeah.
From family offices.
Yep.
So the appetite is there. Absolutely.
Particularly in women's sports. The NWSL is really high on our list. We feel like that's the next league that's going to take that leap. You're seeing some really, really strong valuations from, you know, some of the teams in that league now. So yeah, women's sports is a huge focus for us. And like I said before, some of the more, you know, leagues that are emerging and starting to make some noise. This is a really good time to be able to get on the ground floor.
Cool. So how can people find out more about what you're working on?
Sure, you can check our website championventurepartners.com. We're also on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, CBP Invest. And yeah, we're taking all comers. So we're excited about what we're building.
