Sports stocks jumped 9% to start 2025, more than double the gains of the broader market, as Fubo’s David versus Goliath victory over a deep-pocketed competitor led the Sportico Sports Stock Index to its highest monthly close in more than three years.

The benchmark sports index closed January at 1,477, the Sportico index’s highest month-end mark since December 2021. The 40-stock index saw 29 of its components rise in the month, with eight of those posting double-digit gains to start the year, led by streaming bundler Fubo (FUBO). The sports-centric service advanced 221%, powered by a start-of-year deal struck to merge with Disney’s Hulu, one of the parties in a now-scuttled sports streaming service meant to elbow Fubo out of the marketplace.

The ESPN arm of Disney (DIS, up 2% in January) along with Fox Corp. (FOX, up 6%) and Warner Brothers Discovery (down 1%, not a part of the index) teamed up to form Venu, a sports streaming bundle that would include channels, such as TNT, that weren’t licensed to Fubo. Fubo won an injunction against Venu’s launch, keeping the service from the marketplace. That led to Disney, which had previously said it would launch its own sports streaming service in addition to its Venu stake, electing to merge its Hulu arm and allow Fubo access to ESPN and other channels to form a skinny sports bundle.

While the deal is a victory for Fubo founder and CEO David Gandler, who will continue to lead the merged businesses under the Fubo brand, it’s more of a reverse merger for Hulu. Under terms of the deal, filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission mid-month, the merged company will be 70% owned by Disney, which will appoint the majority of the board of directors.

The Venu lawsuit has been dropped by Fubo, while the three Venu partners decided to end plans for the service altogether in January. The Fubo-Hulu merger is expected to close by April 2026, with a $50 million termination fee from Fubo and a $150 million fee from Hulu payable under certain circumstances if the deal falls apart.

Other stocks enjoying a strong January included betting-reliant Super Group (SGHC) and Sportradar (SRAD). Betway parent Super Group has momentum after exiting the U.S. sports betting market last year. Betway is seeing very strong growth in Africa and Canada, especially in mobile casino games, which account for more than 80% of its revenue. Sports betting is frequently seen by investors as a gateway to more profitable casino games. Super Group was the second-best performing sports stock in the month, advancing 30%. Third-best performer Sportradar, a 21% gainer, is being viewed positively by analysts as a key beneficiary of in-game betting while also being relatively shielded from rising betting taxes, such as Maryland’s current budget proposal to double the sports wagering tax to 30%.

Other advancing sports stocks made gains despite seemingly negative news. Amer Sports (AS) gained 14% in January despite fresh tariffs that take effect Tuesday on China, where the company produces goods that contribute as much as 12% of its annual revenue. In particular, new tariffs in the U.S. are expected to hike its ball, racket and baseball bat prices. Amer produces tennis, basketballs and tennis rackets with the Wilson brand and baseballs and bats under its Louisville Slugger and ATEC labels. It also produces bats under the DeMarini subsidiary, although the company website says those are American made and so presumably would be exempt from tariffs if their supply chain is domestic.

Also gaining in the face of seemingly bad news was Sphere Entertainment (SPHR), which enjoyed a 16% January rise despite speculation that its MSG Networks arm could end up in bankruptcy reorganization. MSG Networks had an $829 million loan come due in October and has been in negotiations with debt holders about a possible restructuring or reduction of the loan since. Some Wall Street analysts suggest Sphere would be better off sending MSG Networks into Chapter 11 because it would remove the debt from Sphere’s balance sheet.

Only 11 stocks in the Sportico Sports Stock Index declined in the month, notably cable providers Rogers Communications (RCI, down 11%) and Comcast (CMCSA, down 10%) as well as local TV conglomerates Sinclair (SBGI, down 9%) and Nextstar Media (NXST, down 3%) which rely in part on cable operators paying retransmission fees to carry their local channels.

The worst performer for the month was Electronic Arts (EA), which lost 16% after announcing two weeks ago its December sales bookings and outlook for fiscal 2024’s results were sharply lower than expectations. EA publishes sports video games including Madden NFL, EA Sports NHL and EA Sports FC. EA Sports FC is seeing weakness after a much-ballyhooed relaunch following its move away from the FIFA brand. Wall Street expects revenue from the soccer game to be down mid-single digits for 2024 after earlier indications it would rise mid-single digits. A launch of another title, the role-playing Dragon Age, was widely seen as a flop, coming in at half of sales expectations and also contributed to EA’s weakness.

The Sportico Sports Stock Index is a basket of companies that rely on sports for most of their business or for a significant percentage of growth. It’s equal-weighted, which means each stock is reset quarterly to 2.5% value in the index. The index includes sports teams including Manchester United (MANU, down 9%), financial services providers Shift4 Payments (FOUR, up 15%) and bowling alley and PBA Tour owner Lucky Strike Entertainment (LUCK, up 6%). To be included in the index, stocks must be trading on a U.S. exchange in sufficient daily volume and have a market capitalization of $50 million or more. Sportico launched the index at 1,000 in August 2020. It’s up 48% since.