OneTeam and EnTrust Global Form $3B Athlete Investment Platform

OneTeam Partners, the athlete marketing and licensing group backed by RedBird Capital, and EnTrust Global, a registered investment advisor managing institutional and high-net-worth portfolios, launched EnOne Ventures on April 1 — a dedicated alternative investment platform targeting professional athletes and entertainers with a stated $3 billion in commitments. The joint venture arrives as athlete earnings hit record highs while financial infrastructure struggles to absorb the wealth concentration, creating what both firms describe as a gap between capital availability and sophisticated investment access.

The platform will focus on private equity, venture capital, real estate, and direct co-investment opportunities, according to a press release issued by the partners. The $3 billion figure represents anticipated assets under management once the platform reaches scale — not capital raised or committed at launch. Both firms declined to specify how much investor capital is currently allocated or how many athlete clients have signed on, calling those details proprietary.

What's clear: this is the latest attempt to institutionalize athlete investing, a category that's grown crowded as professional sports salaries balloon and players seek diversification beyond endorsements and real estate. The question is whether EnOne Ventures can differentiate in a market where athlete-focused investment vehicles have multiplied faster than track records can prove out.

The partnership pairs OneTeam's relationships — the firm represents over 3,000 athletes across major leagues including the NFL, MLB, and international soccer — with EnTrust's 25-year history managing alternative portfolios for institutions and family offices. EnTrust oversees approximately $8 billion in assets, primarily in private equity and venture strategies. The idea: athletes get curated deal flow and institutional-grade diligence; EnTrust gets a pipeline of high-net-worth clients with multi-year earnings visibility.

Professional athlete earnings have grown faster than the wealth management industry built to serve them. NFL players earned a combined $12.6 billion in salary and bonuses in 2025, up 38% from five years earlier, according to NFLPA data. NBA salaries crossed $5.3 billion last season. International soccer's top-tier players pulled in another $8 billion-plus globally. Add endorsements, NIL deals for college athletes, and the Creator Economy's overlap with sports influence, and you've got a capital formation story most private banks weren't built to handle.

The traditional playbook — stick money in municipal bonds, buy a few rental properties, maybe a car wash — hasn't disappeared, but it's increasingly insufficient for players earning eight-figure contracts before age 30. That's created demand for alternatives: private equity funds, venture stakes, direct startup investments, and real estate syndicates. The problem is access and expertise. Most athletes lack the networks, minimum check sizes, or diligence capabilities to compete for top-quartile fund allocations. That's where platforms like EnOne Ventures claim to add value.

"Athletes today are facing a unique challenge: they have significant capital but limited time and often limited access to the institutional-quality investment opportunities that family offices and endowments take for granted," said Ahmad Nassar, CEO of OneTeam Partners, in the release. "EnOne Ventures solves that by bringing institutional infrastructure to an underserved market."

The pitch is credible — but not novel. Dynasty Financial Partners, Morgan Stanley's Athlete and Entertainer Services division, UBS, and a growing list of boutique RIAs have launched similar offerings. Some focus on direct deals (like backing early-stage tech companies), others on fund-of-funds models that pool athlete capital into diversified PE/VC portfolios. EnOne's structure appears to blend both: curated fund access plus co-investment rights on larger deals where athletes can deploy capital alongside institutional LPs.

OneTeam Partners, founded in 2019, emerged from the NFLPA's licensing business and expanded through acquisitions and partnerships to represent athletes across multiple leagues. RedBird Capital — the private equity firm run by Gerry Cardinale, which also owns AC Milan and has stakes in the Yankees' YES Network and Fenway Sports Group — backed OneTeam early on and remains a significant stakeholder. That gives OneTeam credibility in locker rooms, but it doesn't make the firm an investment manager.

That's where EnTrust Global enters. The Oakland, California-based RIA has spent two decades building relationships with private equity GPs, venture funds, and real estate sponsors. Its model centers on constructing diversified alternative portfolios for clients who want exposure to private markets but lack the scale to negotiate directly with Blackstone, KKR, or Andreessen Horowitz. EnTrust essentially aggregates smaller LPs into larger commitments, gaining access to funds that typically require $10 million minimums.

For EnOne Ventures, that means athletes can participate in institutional-quality funds with lower check sizes — likely starting at $250,000 to $500,000 per commitment, though neither firm confirmed minimum investment thresholds. The platform will also offer co-investment opportunities, where athletes can write larger checks directly into companies or assets alongside a lead fund, capturing the upside without paying the 2-and-20 fee structure twice.

Co-investments have become a crucial differentiator in the athlete wealth management arms race. Players want to back companies they believe in — whether that's a sports tech startup, a consumer brand, or a real estate development in their hometown. The risk is overpaying or entering deals without proper diligence. EnOne's pitch is that EnTrust's team will vet opportunities, negotiate terms, and structure deals so athletes aren't flying blind.

The press release states EnOne Ventures will manage "over $3 billion in alternative investments." That number requires context. In wealth management, "assets under management" can mean several things: capital currently invested, capital committed but not yet called, projected AUM at full scale, or assets under advisement (where the firm consults but doesn't have discretion). The release doesn't clarify which definition applies here.

If the $3 billion reflects committed capital from athletes who've signed on, that would be significant — roughly equivalent to a mid-sized institutional fund of funds. If it's a projection based on anticipated client acquisition over the next three to five years, it's ambitious but unproven. Neither OneTeam nor EnTrust provided a breakdown of current versus projected AUM when asked.

What we do know: EnTrust manages about $8 billion total, and OneTeam represents thousands of athletes across leagues with combined annual earnings well north of $20 billion. If EnOne Ventures captures even 10-15% of that pool over time, $3 billion becomes plausible. The challenge is conversion — convincing athletes to allocate meaningful percentages of their net worth to illiquid, long-duration investments instead of safer, more liquid alternatives.

Source: Company disclosures, Pitchbook, press releases. AUM figures reflect most recent publicly available data and may not be directly comparable due to differing structures (funds vs. advisory platforms).

One critical detail missing from the announcement: how EnOne Ventures will charge clients. Traditional RIAs typically charge 1% annually on assets under advisement. Fund-of-funds models often layer an additional fee on top of underlying fund fees, resulting in a 3-and-30 or higher effective load when you stack GP carry, management fees, and platform fees. Co-investment structures can reduce costs, but only if the platform waives fees on those deals — something many don't do.

The athlete-as-investor narrative has been glamorized over the past decade. LeBron James backed Blaze Pizza early and reportedly turned a $1 million investment into $40 million. Serena Williams' venture fund, Serena Ventures, has deployed over $100 million into 80+ companies, with several exits. Kevin Durant's Thirty Five Ventures has stakes in Coinbase, Postmates (sold to Uber), and Gopuff. These are the success stories that get coverage.

What doesn't get covered as often: the venture funds that lost money, the real estate syndicates that underperformed, the co-investments that went sideways because the athlete signed off without reading the diligence memo. A 2023 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that professional athletes are statistically more likely to declare bankruptcy within 12 years of retirement than the general population, often due to illiquid investments, over-leverage, and misaligned financial advice.

The risk isn't alternatives themselves — private equity and venture capital have historically outperformed public markets over long horizons. The risk is mismatched time horizons. A player who signs a four-year contract and invests heavily in a 10-year PE fund might face liquidity constraints if their career ends sooner than expected due to injury, performance decline, or league dynamics. If they need to access capital before the fund matures, they're forced to sell on the secondary market at a discount — often 20-30% below NAV.

EnOne Ventures' structure will need to address this tension. The press release mentions "customized portfolios" and "liquidity considerations," but specifics are absent. Does the platform offer shorter-duration funds? Secondary market access? Staggered capital calls to preserve liquidity? Those details will determine whether athletes stick with the platform through market cycles or bail after the first down year.

"Our goal is to provide not just access, but education and transparency," said Tony Jimenez, CEO of EnTrust Global, in the release. "Athletes need to understand what they're investing in, why it fits their goals, and what the realistic timelines and risks are. This isn't about chasing the hottest deal — it's about building generational wealth."

Every athlete investment platform claims to prioritize education. Few deliver it at scale. The challenge is time — professional athletes are traveling, training, and competing for most of the year. Expecting them to sit through quarterly investor calls or read 40-page fund performance reports is unrealistic. The platforms that succeed will be the ones that distill complexity into digestible formats: video summaries, one-page dashboards, and on-demand access to portfolio managers who can explain downside scenarios without sugarcoating.

EnOne hasn't detailed its educational infrastructure yet. OneTeam has experience building content for athletes — it runs licensing and marketing education programs — but investment education is a different beast. EnTrust has the expertise but hasn't historically operated at the scale OneTeam's athlete network demands. Whether the joint venture can merge both capabilities remains to be seen.

EnOne Ventures isn't entering a vacuum. Patricof Co, launched in 2021 by venture capitalist Alan Patricof and backed by a roster of pro athletes including Patrick Mahomes, Alex Morgan, and Candace Parker, has raised over $515 million for its debut fund targeting consumer, fintech, and sports tech companies. Courtside Ventures, founded in 2015, focuses exclusively on sports tech and has athletes as both LPs and advisors. SeventySix Capital, based in Philadelphia, runs a similar playbook with $440 million across multiple funds.

Then there are the incumbents: Morgan Stanley's Athlete and Entertainer Services division, UBS's Sports and Entertainment group, and Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management all court high-net-worth athletes with customized alternative portfolios. These firms have the balance sheets to absorb manager fees, the compliance infrastructure to navigate SEC regulations, and the brand credibility that comes from managing trillions in global assets.

EnOne's competitive edge, per the partners, is specialization. OneTeam's relationships give the platform organic access to athletes who might not otherwise engage with institutional wealth managers. EnTrust's track record gives those athletes confidence they're not being upsold on high-fee products. But specialization is also a constraint — if the platform can't deliver top-quartile returns, athletes will move capital to Dynasty, Morgan Stanley, or direct deals negotiated through their own networks.

The press release lists four categories: private equity, venture capital, real estate, and direct co-investments. That's broad — arguably too broad to signal a clear investment thesis. The best-performing alternative platforms in the athlete space have been thesis-driven: Patricof Co focuses on consumer and fintech, Courtside Ventures only backs sports tech, SeventySix Capital concentrates on sports media and infrastructure.

EnOne's wide aperture could be strategic — athletes have diverse interests and risk appetites — or it could dilute focus. If the platform tries to be everything to everyone, it risks becoming a commoditized fund-of-funds with no differentiated deal flow. The winners in this space will be the platforms that can offer exclusive allocations athletes couldn't access independently. That requires deep GP relationships and the ability to commit meaningful capital quickly.

Real estate is likely the anchor. It's the most familiar asset class for athletes, often the first stop after traditional investments, and it offers tangible collateral. EnTrust has a history in real estate private equity, particularly in multifamily, industrial, and build-to-rent sectors. Expect EnOne to lead with real estate fund allocations and co-investments in large-scale developments where athletes can participate alongside institutional capital.

Venture exposure will likely be the platform's marketing hook — athletes want to back the next Uber or Coinbase — but it probably won't be the bulk of deployed capital. VC is high-risk, illiquid, and skewed toward outsized losses with rare moonshots. For every Blaze Pizza or Postmates exit, there are a dozen seed investments that returned zero. EnTrust's institutional clients typically allocate 10-15% of alternative portfolios to venture; expect EnOne to follow a similar discipline, capping VC exposure and concentrating it in later-stage growth equity where downside is more protected.

Private equity — specifically buyout funds in the lower-mid market and growth equity — will be the workhorse. These funds target established companies with positive cash flow, leverage operational improvements to drive returns, and typically exit within 5-7 years. Returns are less volatile than VC, and fund managers have longer track records. If EnOne can secure allocations to top-quartile PE funds (those returning 15%+ net IRR), athletes will stay invested. If the platform settles for second- or third-quartile managers charging premium fees, the whole value proposition collapses.

OneTeam's structural advantage is obvious: direct relationships with thousands of athletes, built on trust from years of representing their licensing and marketing rights. That access is rare. Most wealth managers spend years cultivating a single athlete client; OneTeam starts with the entire roster. If the platform can convert even 5-10% of OneTeam's represented athletes into active EnOne investors, it reaches scale faster than any competitor.

The risk is conflicts of interest. OneTeam makes money from athletes through licensing deals, endorsements, and now investment management. If those revenue streams ever misalign — say, an athlete is pressured to invest in a deal that benefits OneTeam's other business lines — the entire relationship fractures. The SEC has strict rules about fee disclosure, fiduciary duty, and suitability standards for RIAs. EnTrust, as the registered advisor, will carry regulatory liability. But reputational risk lands on both firms if athletes lose money and feel misled.

Source: Alternative investment industry standards, RIA compliance frameworks, historical athlete investment outcomes.

The other structural risk is concentration. If EnOne Ventures becomes a meaningful percentage of EnTrust's overall AUM, the firm's incentives shift. Institutional clients and family offices — EnTrust's historical base — might question whether the firm is prioritizing athlete clients over them, especially if athlete deals receive preferential terms or access. Managing that balance will require clear internal walls and disciplined capital allocation.

EnOne Ventures will succeed or fail based on three variables: fund access, performance, and client retention. If the platform secures allocations to funds athletes couldn't access independently, it proves differentiation. If those funds deliver top-quartile returns net of fees, athletes stay invested. If clients stick with the platform through at least one full market cycle — say, a 2027 downturn — the model holds. If any of those variables breaks, athletes will move capital elsewhere, and the $3 billion AUM projection becomes aspirational instead of inevitable.

The first 12-18 months will reveal the platform's actual strategy. Watch for: (1) public announcements of fund commitments or co-investment deals, which signal real capital deployment; (2) client acquisition numbers, even if aggregated, to gauge conversion from OneTeam's athlete network; (3) fee structure disclosures, likely buried in ADV filings with the SEC; and (4) performance reporting, which RIAs are required to disclose annually to clients but not always publicly.

The broader trend here isn't going away. Athletes are getting richer younger, and traditional wealth management isn't built for their needs. Whether EnOne Ventures becomes the dominant platform or just another entrant in a crowded field depends on execution — and on whether the firms can deliver on the promise that athletes deserve the same investment access as endowments and family offices. If they can, $3 billion is just the starting point. If they can't, the athlete investment arms race will continue, and the next platform will get its shot.

For now, the launch is a signal: athlete wealth management is professionalizing, alternative allocations are becoming standard, and the firms that can bridge the gap between locker rooms and boardrooms will capture outsized market share. EnOne Ventures has the relationships and the infrastructure. What it needs now is proof that it can turn access into returns — and returns into trust.