New app by AllSportsMarket allows sports fans to invest in their own pro teams

Many sports fans dream of being able to have a stake in their favorite team.There’s nowan app that can help fans realize that dream.

AllSportsMarket is an app that enables you to invest in any team in the four major North American sports (baseball, football, basketball, and hockey). It’s remarkably similar to investing in the stock market at the NYSE and is an intriguing alternative to gambling on individual games and the various daily fantasy sports sites that have popped up recently. Former NHL All-Star Bernie Nicholls has been supporting the concept of AllSportsMarket for a while now, but the idea has only recently been introduced in the mobile market.

“I was introduced to the idea by my cousin (Jason Henry) and we launched on the internet about 10 years ago,” Nicholls told Metro.“In July of 2014 we launched it on the app store, now it’s on every device.”

The process is a simple one. Simply create an account, log in and accept the 2,500 free points the app gives you, then find a team you want to invest inand determine how much you want to invest. Investments can be sold at any time.

“It’s a great feeling to own a piece of your own team,” said Nicholls.“Some people will just buy into their own team and hold onto it forever.”

But, of course, you can buy into any team you want, if you think it’s a good idea.

“You could invest in an [NHL]team like the Islanders or Lightning.Their prices were low at the start of the season, and they did well,” Nicholls explained. “At one point the Islanders were one of our most highly traded teams.”

You can also simply invest in teams whenever you believe they’ll go on a run.

“You could look at a team’s schedule and say, ‘I think this team is going to win its next 10 games’ and invest in it,” said Nicholls, “it’s a good alternative to gambling [on each game], because if your team loses its OK, you don’t lose everything.”

The prices of teams fluctuate based on how they are bought and sold on the market, and investors can make money by winning “dividends” when their team beats another team. AllSportsMarket will offer a chance to make real money soon, but at the moment it is still in a “trial stage.”

“We’re hoping to offer a real money market [this month],” said Nicholls.“But for now we’re taking it slow so that people will understand it first. We’re getting a lot of great feedback.”

Nicholls believes that people will flock to this app because of the novelty of the concept.

“You can invest in gold and silver, but you can’t watch it perform,” Nicholls said.

How is it legal?

Nicholls explains: “This is legal due to the fact we have created a sports derivative that follows the same principals as weather derivatives or oil derivatives. The performance based sports derivative is an investment, its not gambling. No state laws need to be changed to make room for our market. The driver of this ship is the New Sports Economy, which is a non-profit with 501(c)(3) status that was created to teach finance through sports and the main product used for this purpose is the AllSportsMarket.”