A team performance index tracks a club's statistical performance during a season under published rules and resets on a schedule. A franchise valuation benchmark estimates what owners might pay for clubs as businesses.
One moves with printed game statistics. The other moves with transactions and appraisal inputs. Take hockey for example: goals, saves, and other on-ice constituents illustrate the performance side.
FutureSports Performance Indexes measure in-season statistical performance. Separate franchise valuation benchmarks, including the Ross-Arctos Sports Franchise Index (RASFI), estimate enterprise value across major North American leagues. LeagueShares, LLC is an exchange-traded fund issuer formed to bring sports performance benchmarks into regulated, exchange-listed funds.
The category stack is a team or athlete performance index (for example, a FutureSports Performance Index), cash-settled index futures on a CFTC-designated contract market that reference that benchmark, and ETF wrappers that would reference those benchmarks if and when a registration statement is declared effective.
Sports index futures of this kind are cash-settled contracts on a continuously calculated team performance index, designed for trading on a CFTC-designated contract market. Take hockey for example: CME Group has said hockey / NHL FSPI futures are planned for 28 September 2026, pending regulatory review. That is the first scheduled live example of the category, not the definition of it. As of September 2026, no contract has been listed and final specifications haven't been published. This page is informational only. It isn't an offer to sell securities or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities.
For example, in professional hockey, FSPI team indexes convert officially reported on-ice statistics into a continuous number. Each season starts at a base of 7,500. Positive constituents add. Negative constituents subtract. FutureSports administers the methodology. The league supplies data and doesn't govern the index.
CME Group has said it plans to list cash-settled futures on those indexes beginning 28 September 2026, pending regulatory review. Contract sizes on the CME product page are about $10 times the index for standard and $0.10 times the index for micro.
The Ross-Arctos Sports Franchise Index (RASFI) is described by the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and Arctos as a data-driven gauge of aggregate franchise valuation growth for the largest North American leagues. It is a private-asset style benchmark built from franchise transaction and valuation modeling inputs.
RASFI doesn't cash-settle a CME team performance future. In the hockey worked example, it isn't the underlier for planned CME FSPI Hockey futures. It answers a different question: how estimated franchise enterprise values move over time across clubs as businesses.
They can diverge. A performance index can fall in a week when printed negative constituents outweigh positives, even if the club remains a valuable franchise in the private market.
A franchise valuation print can move on a completed sale, a minority stake, or model inputs that have little to do with that night's shot clock. Correlation is an empirical question for each period. The instruments measure different objects.
Team performance indexes and the planned CME futures sit with parties that need a rules-based statistical benchmark and a cleared risk-transfer tool tied to that path. CME Group and FutureSports have named fans, sponsors, broadcasters, arena operators, vendors, insurers, and related institutions among intended participants.
Franchise valuation benchmarks such as RASFI sit with owners, capital partners, league and club executives, and researchers who need a reference for private franchise enterprise value. That audience is looking at ownership economics, not a T+1 cash settlement to an FSPI close.
Comparison
| Team performance index (FSPI) | Franchise valuation benchmark (e.g., RASFI) | |
|---|---|---|
| Object measured | Season statistical performance from official game data | Estimated franchise enterprise value / valuation growth |
| Primary inputs | Printed game constituents (e.g., goals, saves, penalties in hockey) | Transactions, comps, appraisal-style model inputs |
| Cadence | Moves during games; seasonal reset under methodology | Typically quarterly or transaction-driven updates |
| Exchange-listed future (CME FSPI) | Planned cash-settled futures, pending regulatory review | Not the FSPI futures underlier |
| Typical user question | How is this club performing statistically this season? | What are clubs worth as businesses over time? |
A team performance index tracks printed statistics inside a season and resets on a schedule. A franchise valuation benchmark such as RASFI tracks estimated enterprise value. They answer different questions and can move on different clocks.
LeagueShares, LLC is an exchange-traded fund issuer formed to bring sports performance benchmarks into regulated, exchange-listed funds. Registration statement amendments relating to these securities have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and have not yet become effective. This page is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, and no securities may be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted, before the amendments become effective.
LeagueShares, LLC and LeagueShares Advisors, LLC aren't affiliated with, licensed by, or sponsored or endorsed by CME Group, FutureSports, or any professional sports league, team, player, or players' association.
CME, CME Group and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. FutureSports and FSPI are marks of Sports Futures Xchange, Inc. Ross-Arctos Sports Franchise Index and RASFI, where named, are marks of their respective owners. Third-party document titles are cited for identification only; no license, sponsorship or endorsement is implied.
TUCRM-5903079-09/26