LIVE MARKETS-Sportswear's 3.8 billion pound opportunity

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SPORTSWEAR'S 3.8 BILLION POUND OPPORTUNITY

Analysts at Citi believe the upcoming football World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico could bring a multi-billion pound sales boost for the sporting goods industry.

"We calculate that sporting goods brands and retailers could in aggregate drive an incremental c.£3.8bn of sales from jerseys, balls, and culturally relevant products globally," Citi says.

The World Cup, which kicks off in June, is being expanded to 48 nations. Nike NKE.N, Adidas ADSGn.DE and Puma PUMG.DE are supplying the kits to 11 teams each, nine teams are sponsored by other brands, while six spots are still open.

At its Q3 results, Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden said they expect to do 1 billion euros of World Cup-related sales, which is a circa 40% increase vs. equivalent sales for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. However, they did say that this wasn't fully in addition to usual sales.

"You have to remember that the stores, when you put World Cup product in, you take something else out," Gulden said in October.

Citi assumes Nike will have a similar magnitude with Puma and other brands materially below.

"Whilst NKE (Nike) has not quantified the potential tailwind from World Cup sales, at 2Q26 results the CEO noted that ‘wholesale partners are very confident in our Nike Football product’ and ‘booking units are nearly 40% higher than World Cup 2022.’," Citi notes.

Obviously, much will depend on how the teams fare in the competition.

According to the Kalshi prediction market, Adidas-supplied Spain are the current favourites, followed by England (Nike), France (Nike), Brazil (Nike), Argentina (Adidas), Portugal (Puma) and Germany (Adidas).

(Samuel Indyk)

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