Invest in Napoli Basketball

European basketball is being repriced. The EuroCup just expanded to 32 teams, the NBA is building a European league, and private capital is buying clubs that were run as civic projects for decades. Napoli is the largest Italian city with a single top-flight basketball club, a fanbase that already ranks third in the league, and a diaspora of roughly 20 million people in New York, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Toronto and Sydney.

Underdog Global Partners bought the men's club in 2025, added the women's club in 2026, hired a EuroLeague-caliber coach and an NBA-trained GM, and got the team back into Europe within a year. This round funds the playing side and the groundwork for a new arena. The investment is a minority stake in the US holding company that owns 93.58% of the Italian club - common units, alongside the sponsor, with no preference.

Momentum

1. EuroCup 2026-27 - one of 32 clubs in the expanded format, first European season since 2006; group stage opened September 30 at home
2. $10M raised from Predictive Accretion in September-October 2026 at about $28M post [To confirm installments fully funded]
3. Women's team acquired in 2026 and approved for Serie A2; Naples hosted the 2026 Jr. NBA/WNBA FIP draft with 26,000 students in the program (+168% year on year)
4. Club revenue, attendance and sponsorship figures [To confirm - not in the materials]

Market

Italian basketball clubs have mostly been owned by local businessmen and run at a loss as a point of civic pride. That is changing: the EuroCup went to 32 teams this season, the NBA has said it will launch a European league, and groups like this one are buying clubs with the arena, media and merchandise playbook that US franchises have run for thirty years. The club with the most compelling city, fanbase and venue story is the one those leagues want.

Napoli has the city and the fanbase. The venue is the gap - the club plays in a 2003 arena with limited premium seating, and the new 15,000-seat complex is still at the development stage. Beyond basketball, the owners have said publicly they want a multi-sport platform in Naples; that is upside for the brand, not something this round pays for.

Team

This is an ownership group that has already done the small-Italian-club-to-national-story arc once, paired with a basketball operations staff that has won at the highest levels of both the NBA and European basketball. The owners handle brand, capital and the city; the basketball people handle the roster.

Matt Rizzetta - Founder and Managing Partner, Underdog Global Partners; CEO of the holding company. Built and sold North 6th Agency to private equity, then bought Campobasso FC in 2022 and took it through two promotions and an ESPN docuseries with Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.

Joseph Greco - Co-Managing Partner, UGP. Investor and executive advisor; co-leads the group with Rizzetta.

Jasmin Repeša - Head Coach. Three Croatian league titles, two cups, and a EuroLeague Final with Fortitudo Bologna.

James Laughlin - General Manager. Five years on the Golden State Warriors technical staff under Steve Kerr, two NBA championships; previously with the Pelicans.

Daniel Doyle, Angelo Pasto, Bob Wood - General Partners, UGP. Fintech founder with a 2022 exit to Blackstone; commercial real estate developer; former multinational CEO and board member. [To confirm roles on this deal specifically]

Business model

The club makes money the way every club does: tickets, sponsorship, league and European media distributions, merchandise. The holding company owns 93.58% of the Italian operating company and sits above both the men's and women's teams; the women's team shares the venue, ticketing, sponsorship packages and brand. The new arena would add premium seating (20 suites, 75 loges, 250 courtside, 1,755 club seats), naming rights and non-basketball events - none of that exists today.

Exit paths

1. A sports investment group or multi-club owner buying the whole club - the Napoli brand plus a EuroCup license plus an arena project is exactly the package groups like Ariel's sports fund, Arctos-style funds and US franchise owners have been buying in Europe.
2. Conversion into an NBA Europe or EuroLeague franchise - if either league lands in Italy, a club with Naples' market and a modern arena is a natural pick, and franchise values in those structures run well above where Italian clubs trade today. The documents give investors pro rata rights to participate in that opportunity [To confirm how those rights flow through the SPV].

Why invest in this team

1. They have done this before, in Italy. Campobasso was an amateur club in 2022. Four years later it has been promoted twice and has an ESPN series. Running an Italian sports club from the US - the federation, the city, the fans - is the hard part, and this group has the reps.
2. The basketball side is already built. Most club turnarounds spend two years finding a coach and a front office. Napoli has Repeša and Laughlin in place, a EuroCup roster on the floor, and the budget to compete. The money in this round goes to keeping that going, not to figuring it out.
3. Investors sit alongside the sponsor, and the sponsor controls it. This is a minority common stake. UGP holds 64% and two of three board seats, fiduciary duties are waived to the extent Delaware allows, and up to $5M of the last round repaid UGP's own loans and overhead. The club has not yet posted positive operating results and will raise again. The bet is that the people who built Campobasso's value build Napoli's, and that being in the cap table matters when the arena or a league opportunity happens. Investors who need governance rights to be comfortable should pass.