London \/ Lisbon, 7th July – APEX, the international sports investment firm, today announces a partnership with and a strategic stake in the Northern Super League (NSL), Canada\u2019s first and only professional women\u2019s soccer league.<\/p>\n
The transaction represents the first completed private equity investment in a professional women\u2019s soccer league globally, reflecting growing investor confidence in the NSL and in women\u2019s soccer as a commercial asset class at a time when institutional investment in the sport is accelerating.<\/p>\n
The league delivered immediate commercial success in its inaugural season, attracting more than 275,000 fans across 80 matches and ranking near the top for worldwide average women\u2019s soccer attendance, ahead of established leagues including Liga F and D1 F\u00e9minine. It generated over $30 million CAD in league-wide revenue before any media rights monetization. The league secured 16 national partners in year one, including Toyota, Coca-Cola, BMO, DoorDash and Canadian Tire. Broadcast partnerships with CBC and TSN reached more than 3 million Canadians, while ESPN+ expanded the league\u2019s reach to audiences across the United States.<\/p>\n
The investment will support the league\u2019s next phase of growth, including commercial expansion, audience development, digital innovation, and international distribution opportunities in preparation for the next media rights cycle.<\/p>\n
Christina Litz, President of the NSL, commented: \u201cIn just one season, the Northern Super League demonstrated that there is significant demand for professional women\u2019s soccer in Canada. This investment from APEX reflects confidence not only in the progress we have made, but in the opportunity that lies ahead. As we continue to build the league, APEX\u2019s global experience, strategic perspective, and commitment to growing sports properties will help us accelerate audience growth, strengthen our commercial business, and position the Northern Super League for long-term success on the international stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The investment reflects APEX\u2019s conviction in the structural growth of women\u2019s soccer. The global women\u2019s sports market has grown more than 3.5x since 2022 to approximately $2.4B, with women\u2019s soccer\u2019s fanbase projected to reach 800M by 2030.<\/p>\n
Ant\u00f3nio Ca\u00e7orino, Founder & CEO of APEX, said: \u201cWomen\u2019s football has the players, the fans, and the competitive quality. With the right capital and commercial infrastructure behind it, the sport has the opportunity to unlock significant long-term value globally. The NSL delivered in season one. Now we are excited to help enable the next phase of growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada, home to the third-largest women\u2019s soccer player pool in the world and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions, had no professional domestic league until the NSL launched.<\/p>\n
The commercial opportunity that had been building for years now has a home. With the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup coming to Brazil in 2027, the spotlight on women\u2019s soccer is only set to intensify, and NSL players are already among the leading contenders to represent Canada on that stage.<\/p>\n
Jo\u00e3o Verol Marques, Partner and Head of Growth & Private Equity at APEX, added: \u201cWomen\u2019s sports have evolved into a powerful, global product with undeniable momentum, and we at APEX believe the NSL sits at the intersection of that rise and Canada\u2019s exceptional soccer legacy. With world-class talent developed domestically and proven on the international stage, the league has every right – and every ingredient – to become one of the top leagues globally. Building on the clear success of its inaugural season, we see a platform ready to grow, under the leadership of Christina and founder Diana Matheson, alongside APEX\u2019s commitment to help unlock its full potential.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the second deployment from the APEX Sports Growth Fund, following the firm\u2019s recently announced investment in the NFL-backed professional flag football league alongside TMRW Sports. Together, the two investments reflect APEX\u2019s deliberate strategy of accessing high-IP sports assets at an early stage of their commercial development. The firm has previously invested in the BWT Alpine Formula 1 Team, Venezia FC, Baller League, and TGL.<\/p>\n
APEX\u2019s Sports Growth Fund targets strategic positions in small-to-mid cap sports assets valued between \u20ac50M and \u20ac500M, focusing on high-IP properties with untapped commercial potential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London \/ Lisbon, 7th July – APEX, the international sports investment firm, today announces a partnership with and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[712,49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-786393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}