Sport betting represents over 30% of the global gambling market and its share increases during major sporting events, such as the upcoming World Cup 2018. Betting is highly risky and even though the winnings can be very high there aren’t many successful stories of people that built their fortunes or managed to provide a comfortable lifestyle for themselves through sports betting. We believe that a much better capital allocation would be to invest in companies that will not only see higher sales in the short-run due to the World Cup, but might also do well over the long run. In the first part of this two-article series we covered three stocks to buy ahead of the World Cup 2018, Adidas AG (ADR) (OTCMKTS:ADDYY), Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA), and Domino’s Pizza, Inc. (NYSE:DPZ) and in this article we will discuss five other companies that have a big exposure to the event.
In addition to enjoying higher short-term returns from their exposure to the World Cup 2018, the companies that we are going to discuss also see strong support from smart money investors. Our research has shown that the hedge fund sentiment is a metric that should definitely be taken into account when identifying the best stocks to invest in, since hedge funds conduct a detailed analysis of each company they invest in and focusing on their collective picks provides investors with an edge that can beat the market.
Based on this research and backtesting, Insider Monkey has developed a strategy that focuses on the most popular stocks among best-performing hedge funds and it has returned over 74% since May 2014, outperforming the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by over 20 percentage points. We share the picks from our strategy in our premium newsletters that can be accessed free of charge for 14 days.
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While in the US, soccer is not the most popular sport (it ranks fourth after American Football, Baseball, and Basketball) and with the US not qualifying to go to Russia, where the World Cup 2018 will take place between June 14 and July 15, it’s a big deal in most other countries, in some of which it represents part of the culture. Like with many spectator sporting events, the main staple drink associated with soccer is beer, therefore you can’t go amiss with Anheuser Busch Inbev NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD), the largest beer company in the world. Anheuser Busch Inbev NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD) is also one of long-time sponsors of the World Cup and has secured its commitment towards the World Cup 2018, as well as the one in 2022 that will take place in Qatar. Recently, Anheuser Busch Inbev NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD) launched its “Light Up the FIFA World Cup” campaign that includes global advertising and dispatching over eight million high-tech red cups that will light up in response to fans cheering.
Anheuser Busch Inbev NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD) also owns a large portfolio of beer brands in many countries across the world, including Budweiser, which is the best-selling beer in the world and the official beer of the World Cup 2018 and Stella Artois, which is the best selling beer in Europe. Among the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey, 27 funds amassed nearly $7.0 billion worth of Anheuser Busch Inbev NV (ADR) (NYSE:BUD)’s stock heading into 2018.
On the next page, we will discuss four other stocks to invest in to get exposure to the World Cup 2018.
