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As the sports economy grows, insurers rush to cover risks from World Cup disruptions to NIL liabilities.

This article appears in the September issue of Global Finance Magazine.

On 104 separate occasions in June and July, World Cup organizers tried something new. They held games at 16 venues across Mexico, the U.S., and Canada. More games in more locations increased the risk of cancellation due to threats of terrorism, fire, and climate-related catastrophes, as well as cyber incidents and other disruptions.

Long before players took the field, a small army of insurance professionals analyzed risks, negotiated policies, and drafted contracts to help ensure FIFA would not suffer crippling financial losses if an event was canceled. FIFA carried about $1 billion in event-cancellation coverage for this year’s tournament, up from an estimated $900 million for Qatar in 2022, according to Mario De Cicco, vice president of Morningstar DBRS’s Global Insurance & Pension Ratings group. 

FIFA is just one component of the mammoth worldwide sports industry, which the World Economic Forum estimates generated $2.3 trillion in revenue in 2025. 

“It’s not only the large events like the World Cup which are becoming more frequent and more complex,” said De Cicco. “There is also growing participation at every level, from amateurs to professionals. So there are more potential financial losses, and that creates higher demand for insurance protection.”

The magnitude of the money isn’t the only thing that’s changed; the risks CFOs must insure against are also evolving. A decade ago, sports insurance meant stadiums, workers’ comp, and injured players. Today it means ransomware, brand damage, NIL (name, image, and likeness) contracts, and even sports-betting integrations with little or no actuarial history, forcing carriers and brokers to build coverage from scratch in real time for risks that may not have existed five years ago.

Burgeoning demand has transformed a specialty market into a profit center for insurers, according to De Cicco. Large carriers such as Zurich, Munich Re, Swiss Re, and Allianz dominate the top end, he noted, while niche players like American Specialty Insurance and Berkley Insurance add depth. Often, the largest sports insurance contracts are underwritten by a syndicate, using a risk-sharing structure to mitigate catastrophic losses.

The Change at Colleges

College sports illustrate what can happen when rapid growth hits an area with little or no actuarial history. Much of the growth comes from NIL compensation and the revenue-sharing framework established by the landmark 2025 House v. NCAA decision, which turned university athletic departments in the U.S. into direct payers of athlete compensation — and bearers of financial risk when a star gets hurt.

Zurich entered the market in August 2025 with the sports-data firm Players Health, after about 15 years of providing coverage to schools and sports organizations. They built a product that reimburses institutions for NIL value when an athlete misses at least 40% of a season, up to policy limits of $2 million. However, for the new line, Zurich had no direct actuarial history.

“We weren’t pricing it blind,” said Marty Banaszek, head of Group Accident at Zurich North America; Players Health’s underlying injury data across sport and position helped to make the risk underwritable. Premiums run roughly 6% to 12% of contract value, weighted toward the highest-exposure positions: “starting quarterbacks, starting running backs,” Banaszek said.

Tate Gillespie, vice president of NIL Strategy & Partnerships at Players Health, helped build the product with Zurich. His “aha” moment came while working in sports at the University of Kansas, when the team’s starting quarterback, a player earning significant NIL money, was injured. A friend and eventual Players Health co-founder asked what the university’s risk management plan was, assuming there wasn’t one. 

“You realize that’s not how the National Football League does it,” his friend said, pointing out that pro teams had been insuring against this kind of loss for years, but nothing like it existed in college sports.

The combined NIL and revenue-share market is approaching $3 billion today, Gillespie estimates, and he projects it will reach $4 billion to $5 billion in a year, with 30% to 40% annual growth. Banaszek frames buying behavior in financial terms: “These organizations really need to think of this spend as an investment portfolio, not dissimilar [to] how insurance or other financial institutions make investment decisions.”

When Risk Stopped Being Physical

That’s already the case, said Rory Lough, senior vice president at global brokerage Gallagher, who pointed out that NIL has broadened exposure well beyond the training room. It now includes athlete protection, contractual and business liability for collectives, and institutional compliance risk related to Title IX and employment classification. 

“Stakeholders are no longer looking at insurance as simply protection against injury,” she said. That newly intangible category of risk — brand, data, governance — runs through nearly every exposure. Cyber touches it all, from contract records and fan payment data to medical files, compliance documentation, and more.

Cybercriminals target major sporting events for their high visibility, said Jeffrey Lang, senior vice president and California Platform Leader at brokerage Trucordia. However, the risk is particularly hard to price because of its relative newness and the perpetrators’ adaptability. A game-day ransomware attack on a stadium operator can simultaneously bring down payment systems, digital ticketing, security access, and broadcast feeds. Risk rises with AI deepfakes and misinformation that can derail a team’s reputation. 

“How do you put a precise dollar figure on lost brand trust or broken sponsor confidence?” Lang asked. “You can measure the cost of rebuilding a damaged wall, but calculating the financial damage of a ruined reputation is much harder.”

Ten years ago, he said, he would talk with prospects about insuring their stadium against fire or property damage, covering concourse slip-and-falls, buying workers’ comp for staff, and securing basic coverage for player injuries or weather-related cancellations. If something broke or someone got hurt, the carrier absorbed the financial hit. That playbook, Lang said, no longer applies.

Much of the sports insurance build-out can be ascribed to the growth of major sports franchises, some of which have become multifaceted corporations, worth more than many Fortune 500 companies. They run real estate portfolios, media companies, and massive data operations. 

But the nature of the insured is different too. 

“The big difference between a sports franchise and a typical corporate entity is visibility,” Lang added. “If a corporate server goes down quietly, it’s an internal headache. If a stadium’s entry system fails live on international TV and in front of 70,000 fans, it’s global news instantly.”  

Weld Royal is a contributing writer based in the U.S.

For these CFOs, summer is where the year is won or lost.

This article appears in the July/August issue of Global Finance Magazine.

Every spring, airlines, cruise lines, travel booking platforms, golf tour operators, race promoters and other seasonal businesses begin trying to answer the question that will define much of their year: How is summer shaping up? For their CFOs, a few months of peak demand often determine whether the entire year meets expectations.

This year, the early signals have been broadly encouraging. Despite conflict in the Middle East that rattled European and Asian bookings, travel advisories in Mexico, and lingering concerns about consumer sentiment, many travel companies reported strong demand. Europe’s TUI Group reported its best-ever first half, with 7.9 million summer bookings already in place, while Expedia posted its highest first-quarter EBITDA margin in 15 years.

But the stakes remain unusually high because many of these businesses generate a disproportionate share of their annual revenue in a relatively short window. Whether they operate airlines, racetracks, or golf tours, their finance chiefs spend months forecasting demand, managing labor and capital, and preparing for risks—from weather disruptions to geopolitical shocks—that could derail the season.

The Aviation CFO: Gauging Bad Weather

Today, by contrast, consumers want to travel, and the booking window is holding steady. That signal is especially important to the CFOs at companies whose fortunes depend on summer travel. 

Max Mertz is CFO and co-owner of Alaska Seaplanes, which operates a fleet of 20 aircraft based in Juneau and serves communities throughout southeast Alaska. Summer brings millions of visitors to the state, many seeking flights over glaciers, bear safaris, and trips to remote fishing lodges. 

“June, July, August, and then, if you add the shoulder season, which starts around mid-May and lasts until about a week after Labor Day, account for two-thirds of our revenue. It’s critical, honestly,” Mertz says.

Bookings at his company’s tourism subsidiary arrive months in advance, enabling year-over-year comparisons. Fishing lodges commit capacity based on their own guest projections. Strong retail sales and corporate bonus cycles in the Lower 48 states translate into lodge demand. Construction projects and gold and silver mines in remote communities create predictable demand for cargo and charters.

The seasonal concentration is all about costs. 

“Aviation is a high fixed-cost industry,” Mertz says. “On a per-flight, per-unit basis, obviously the higher your volume, the more you cover fixed costs, so you’re making a good chunk of your bottom line as well.”

What makes Alaska Seaplanes unusual — even among seasonal businesses — is the extent to which weather inserts an uncontrollable financial variable. Anyone who has flown in Alaska knows how its dense cloud layer and mist can quickly form, grounding aircraft for days. Mertz has invested in reliability. Alaska Seaplanes has spent multiple seven-figure sums on specialized navigation systems that increase aircraft safety and reliability.

No Do-Overs: Running Racetracks

Weather also matters to Mike Morrisey. As CFO of Green Savoree Racing Promotions for the past 31 seasons, he oversees four motorsports race properties: Mid-Ohio; a newly built circuit in Markham, Ontario; St. Petersburg, Florida; and Portland, Oregon. “The summer is where you make your revenue,” he says.

Often, a big race weekend is a single 72-hour window when gate revenue, hospitality, suites, sponsorships, and concessions converge. There is no making it up later. 

“When the checkered flag drops, we have crews out there tearing it all down” at the temporary street racing circuits, Morrisey says. 

The leading indicators he watches for signs of summer success are ticket renewals and suite sales. The next forecasting cycle begins almost immediately after the prior season ends. 

“We typically launch ticket renewals in the fall for the following year,” Morrisey says. “St. Pete tickets go on sale in mid-September, and Mid-Ohio in mid- to late October.” Suite customers are approached for renewal while the race is still being torn down. 

The logistics of motorsports racing would likely surprise CFOs in other industries. Green Savoree owns roughly $4 million in portable grandstands and suite infrastructure. These aluminum structures sit in a St. Petersburg warehouse between events, are loaded onto about 40 trucks after the Florida race, and are shipped to Canada for use in Markham. The company operates with fewer than 50 full-time employees year-round, a number that swells to about 270 during the peak summer season. 

Golf’s Stark Scheduling Problem

Gordon Dalgleish co-founded Perry Golf in 1984 and remains president of the luxury golf travel company he and his brother built around the British Isles. The company is now majority-owned by private equity investors. His seasonal challenge is stark: He sells access to some of the world’s most coveted golf inventory in a region that is closed for business for roughly half the year.

“It is very seasonal, and it doesn’t matter what you do,” says Dalgleish. “You cannot sell golf trips for November. It gets dark and rainy.”

The business operates at near-full capacity during the peak season and near-zero outside it; the peak season runs from late April to early October. St. Andrews, which Dalgleish calls the engine that “drives the bus” for the entire Scottish golf hospitality industry, closes for three weeks in September and early October for the Royal and Ancient Golf Club’s autumn meeting and the Dunhill Links Championship. When St. Andrews closes, the broader market goes quiet. 

Booking lead time has changed dramatically, reshaping Perry Golf’s forecasting model. 

Pre-Covid, Dalgleish saw a fairly predictable 12-month booking cycle. Inquiries would begin in July for the following summer, slow through the holidays, and ramp back up in January and February, giving him a clear picture of the season by late February. Today, he sees inquiries for July 2028 arriving in spring 2026. By this Christmas, he expects to have 40% to 50% of next summer’s bookings in hand. 

One possible driver of this shift is affluent Americans, a key customer segment, who have reoriented their spending toward experiences rather than assets and who plan farther in advance to secure exactly what they want. However, the supply of premium Scottish golf inventory has barely grown. 

“There are 25 courses that are on everyone’s must-play list in Scotland,” Dalgleish notes. Demand is running ahead of last year’s pace, and father-son trips are booking at high volumes. “There’s an affluence slushing around in golf just now.”

The Franchise Model Meets the Heat Wave

Josh Greear models a different kind of seasonal pressure. As CFO of Maryland-based Authority Brands, which derives over 90% of its revenue and more than $2 billion in annual system sales from 15 home services franchise brands, he manages seasonal concentration across a portfolio of businesses, each facing different summer inflection points.

“Summer’s always been important to Authority Brands,” Greear says. Its America’s Swimming Pools franchise business faces heavy warm-weather demand. Consumers tend to seek the services of its Mosquito Squad brand as critters emerge in warm weather. One Hour Heating & Air is driven by heat waves, not the calendar. Figuring out when to hire is tricky.

“The hardest time to manage labor is on the shoulder of the seasons, when you’re seeing the largest change,” Greear observes. In a business like One Hour Heating and Air, if temperatures spike sharply and you’re not prepared, you miss the demand and usually have no easy way to make it up. Conversely, if you’ve overstaffed in anticipation of early summer, profitability erodes.

To better manage risk, Greear says Authority Brands has invested in large-language-model-driven forecasting that integrates local weather trends, historical demand patterns, and brand-specific variables at the ZIP code level. The business now uses multivariate models that ingest large datasets and distill them into actionable insights for specific locations. For summer 2026, Greear flagged a milder-than-typical start to the season in many parts of the US, which will affect the timing of demand for weather-sensitive brands.

Greear measures success by revenue, share gains, and franchisee health: “If we’re taking share, our customers are happy, and, most importantly, our franchise owners are healthy, then our business is in a very stable, long-term strong position.”

Another way to manage seasonal risk, however, is to diversify: in this case, by owning businesses that operate year-round, collectively if not individually.

California-based Youth Enrichment Brands traces its roots to summer camp and has spread that model across 12 months; its portfolio now includes US Sports Camps, i9 Sports, and School of Rock, which together smooth the seasonal curve. 

“As of 2025, less than 20% of our systemwide sales are derived from summer-based activities alone,” says Dustin Bertram, CFO. Winter programs, year-round leagues, and music instruction have broadened the revenue base. “The platforms that win will be those that remain focused on the customer experience, maintain diversified offerings, exercise disciplined cost control, and invest in evolving their programs.”

Weld Royal is a contributing writer based in the U.S.

Missed payroll expectations and revised April and May numbers put the Fed in a tough spot for rate cuts.

June’s employment numbers showed almost no change from the previous month, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 4.2% unemployment rate and an estimated 57,000 nonfarm payroll jobs, roughly half the 115,000 economists expected.

At the same time, the agency also revised April’s and May’s total nonfarm payrolls down by 31,000 and 43,000 jobs, respectively.

According to BLS data, the financial activities sector experienced no job growth in June, after losing 22,000 jobs in May and 43,000 from the end of January. Meanwhile, healthcare and social assistance added the most jobs in June, with 46,600. Among the sectors with the largest job losses were leisure and hospitality (-61,000), information (-9,000), and retail trade (-7,500).

Sunnier Number

“We know it’s taking people longer to find work, but there are also signs of labor supply constraints in certain industries,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, in the company’s National Employment Report for June. “For now, the overall effect is a slowdown in job creation.”

Using its proprietary methodology developed with Stanford Digital Economy Lab, ADP estimated that U.S. private employers added 98,000 jobs in June. Financial activities saw an increase of 14,000 jobs, placing it only behind education and health services (48,000) and trade, transportation, and utilities (15,000) in job creation.

Small businesses remain the largest source of hiring, with companies with 1-19 employees adding 38,000 new jobs. The companies with more than 500 employees added an additional 25,000 new positions. The companies that fell in between those sizes added 44,000 new jobs.

Doomed Rate Cuts

The revised April and May employment numbers and June’s lower-than-expected numbers reveal a softer labor market in the second quarter than previously thought. 

The new figures have created a headwind for the Federal Reserve on possible rate cuts, as inflation remains close to its 2% target, according to the authors of a blogpost on the Curzio Research website.

“But a slowing labor market argues for cuts to support growth before conditions deteriorate further,” they wrote. “That is why the revisions matter. Every policy decision is only as good as the data behind it. If the Fed is reacting to numbers that keep getting weaker after the fact, it risks staying tight for too long.”

Former Pfizer executive David Denton steps into the CFO role amid a bruising stock decline.

Nike Inc. said Tuesday it has hired David Denton as its next chief financial officer, tapping the former Pfizer Inc. finance chief to help stabilize a company navigating one of the most difficult stretches in its history.

Denton will join the Beaverton, Oregon-based sportswear giant as Executive Vice President and CFO effective Aug. 17. Matthew Friend, who has held the role since April 2020, will step down on that date and remain in the role through Sept. 4.

Nike Dogged by Rivals, Slumping Share Price

The announcement did little to reassure investors. Nike shares fell 4.5% to close at $42.38 Tuesday, leaving the stock down 33% year to date. The company has been grappling with slowing sales and eroding market share to nimbler rivals such as On Running and Hoka.

CEO Elliott Hill, who took the helm in late 2024, has been working to arrest the slide, but a full recovery has proven elusive.

Whether Denton’s expertise can generate a turnaround remains to be seen. He previously served as CFO and Executive Vice President at Pfizer since May 2022. Before that, he held the same title at Lowe’s Cos. from 2018 to 2022. He also spent two decades at CVS Health Corp., including as CFO during the company’s evolution into a diversified health. In all, he brings more than 30 years of finance and operating leadership across large, complex public companies.

Denton, in a prepared statement, called Nike “one of the world’s great brands.”

“I’m excited to partner with Elliott and the leadership team to support the company’s priorities, invest with discipline, and help deliver sustainable long-term value,” he said.

Hill framed the transition as a strategic inflection point. “This is a natural moment for a leadership transition as we move from foundational actions to sustained growth through our Sport Offense operating model,” he said.

Friend joined Nike in 2009 and rose through roles including CFO of the Nike Brand and VP of Investor Relations before assuming the top finance post. Nike expanded his responsibilities in late 2025 to include Global Sales and Direct-to-Consumer functions.

Prior to Nike, he worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

What’s Next

Nike expects to report fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2026 results on June 30. Analysts anticipate earnings of $0.12 per share on revenue of $10.85 billion, compared with 14 cents per share and $11.1 billion in the prior-year period — a stark illustration of how far the company still has to go. Results will include a one-time benefit from tariff refunds that were not previously factored into the guidance.

Contact the author: anoto@gfmag.com

A $60B tech acquisition marks the aggressive start of SpaceX’s post-IPO capital strategy.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — more commonly known as SpaceX — is not letting proceeds from the largest initial public offering in history sit on the launchpad, and piquing the Street’s curiosity on its cash management strategy.

The day after its IPO trades settled, the company, which added approximately $75 billion to its roughly $15.85 billion pre-IPO cash position, announced plans to acquire AI coding company Cursor in a $60 billion all-stock deal that is expected to close in the third quarter, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

SpaceX first announced it had secured the right to buy Cursor in April but held off due to its upcoming IPO, Bloomberg News reported.

The company did not respond to a request for comment.

The rocket-launch, connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI), and social media company’s IPO placed it in the top 10 U.S.-listed companies by market capitalization, roughly $2.1 trillion. It also placed it fifth among the U.S. companies with the largest cash positions. It trails only behind Berkshire Hathaway Inc. ($397.38 billion), Amazon.com Inc. ($145.97 billion), Alphabet Inc. ($126.84 billion), and Interactive Brokers Group Inc. ($100.39 billion), according to TradingView data. 

Cash Management and IPO Proceeds

The company has not detailed whether it plans to use the newfound capital to fund growth, reduce risk, repay debt, or preserve option value. With a $2.1 trillion market cap and near-guarantee to be included in the marquee stock indices, does it truly matter?

“What SpaceX does with cash and its capital structure are rounding errors in its valuation,” Aswath Damodaran, of New York University’s Stern School of Business, told Global Finance.

However, the treasury still has an important part to play, said John Graham, finance professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

“There are examples of companies that grew too fast,” he said. “They were on a positive trajectory with their strategies, but did not manage their cash appropriately and went bankrupt.”

Graham noted that he was not privy to SpaceX’s capital allocation plans, but typically sees two typical uses for IPO proceeds, depending on the company’s maturity.

Startups often use their newfound cash to fuel their drive to profitability while keeping the lights on. Profitable companies tend to use their windfalls to let founders, early investors, and employees cash out a bit.

“Both of those are probably happening in this case, just on a larger scale,” he said.

Neither Fish nor Fowl

Investors can view SpaceX as a mixture of mature and startup business lines. The company’s Starlink satellite-based Internet connectivity unit is currently the only unit generating profits on roughly $11.39 billion in revenue, according to its prospectus.

Whether that, combined with its IPO proceeds, is enough to subsidize its AI and other businesses remains to be seen, and raises a broader question about how SpaceX and the ‘Elon Premium’ will test the market’s logic.

“As things stand today, investors are essentially buying a company whose core business is launching satellites, which remains its largest source of revenue,” said  Ismael García Puente, Deputy Director of Investment Strategy at Spanish investment manager Mapfre AM. “Its technology and AI-related businesses are still operating at a loss. We need to see how these segments evolve before we can assess their long-term profitability.”

Contact the author: rdaly@gfmag.com

Central bank bottlenecks and massive import costs delay the impact of a $4B windfall.

War-torn Libya is pumping oil at its fastest pace in more than a decade, averaging about 1.4 million barrels per day in April, according to National Oil Corp. operating data.

Still, refining capacity, distribution networks, and subsidy-financed imports remain strained by years of institutional division since the 2011 conflict, when production fell sharply from about 1.5 million barrels per day to near-collapse levels during the civil war.

The imbalance reflects Libya’s fragmented downstream system, where crude oil exports continue but refining capacity, distribution networks, and subsidy-financed imports remain strained by years of institutional disruption since the 2011 uprising and the overthrow of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi, when production fell sharply.

Tracking Libya’s Hydrocarbon Windfall

The state-owned NOC reported $2.82 billion in gross oil revenue in April, followed by nearly $4 billion in May, the highest monthly intake in over 10 years, according to local energy reports citing official data. Crude flows through Es Sider, Ras Lanuf, and Zawiya terminals into Mediterranean markets, where it is priced against Brent-linked benchmarks.

Translating stronger production and upstream earnings into direct benefits to the state and its people remains challenging, however.

The May surge coincided with a sharp increase in fuel imports; NOC Chairman Masoud Suleman confirmed the contracting of 17 gasoline tankers, the highest monthly fuel import volume in Libya’s history. Even as import activity rose, several cities in western Libya reported fuel shortages and long queues at filling stations, exposing persistent breakdowns in domestic distribution.

The cash conversion of oil earnings is still structurally uneven. In April, only $1.91 billion of $2.82 billion in gross revenue reached the Central Bank of Libya after fuel-import and settlement deductions routed through the Libyan Foreign Bank mechanism. That left roughly $910 million stuck within upstream settlement layers awaiting final transfer into the sovereign liquidity system.

On June 3, the central bank launched a $3.5 billion foreign currency allocation program to cover letters of credit (LOCs), foreign transfers, and retail foreign-currency demand, according to Libyan financial disclosures, amid persistent import financing pressure on food, fuel, and industrial inputs.

Central Bank at the Center of Fiscal Fault Line

The central bank sits at the center of this fiscal roundelay. It is the sole legal recipient of hydrocarbon revenues and converts inflows into domestic liquidity for salaries, imports, and foreign exchange allocations, making it the clearing hub for the national economy.

That role has repeatedly placed it at the center of political escalation. Last August, a dispute over central bank leadership triggered a production shutdown in the eastern half of the country that quickly cut output from nearly 959,000 barrels per day to 591,000, according to NOC data. The United Nations Support Mission in Libya warned that disruption of the central bank’s clearing function would freeze LOCs and salary payments, given that hydrocarbons account for more than 90% of export earnings.

The underlying political structure remains split between the UN-backed Government of National Unity in Tripoli and the Government of National Stability based in Benghazi and Tobruk in the east; UN mediation is ongoing, but national elections remain stalled. A rare shift occurred on April 11, however, when the rival eastern and western legislative bodies signed a landmark agreement to unify public spending, creating Libya’s first consolidated budget framework since 2013.

Foreign Majors Return as Political Risk Persists