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Online Gaming, Art, and Collectibles: Unique Opportunities to Diversify an Investment Portfolio

Gabelli100 | Mar 04, 2021 |

By Claire Curry

Four out of five of the most-watched sporting events in the last five years have been e-sports games, and they continue to rise in popularity. While online gaming might seem like an unconventional investment, Clinical Associate Professor Kevin Mirabile, D.P.S., sees the potential returns.

Unique alternative investments—royalties, art, collectibles, farmlands, and life settlements—are the focus of his new book Exotic Alternative Investments: Standalone Characteristics, Unique Risks and Portfolio Effects. Mirabile discussed the risks, returns, and rewards of these investments and the megatrends that support their value in a recent Gabelli School Centennial Virtual Speaker Series conference sponsored by the Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis.

A number of factors can affect consumer behavior and the corresponding value of exotic alternative investments. For example, those in the top one-percent wealth bracket are inclined to invest in art or collectibles with higher price points, while millennials prefer online gaming over traditional sports. Other influences, such as world population shifts—Mirabile uses China’s growing middle class as an example—are driving farmland and water assets into a higher demand.  

“I think we’ve made the case that these asset classes are certainly worth investigating, that they represent an opportunity for high-risk, adjusted-reward and positive-portfolio effects,” he said. “They’re not without risk, and there also are some additional issues that seem to prevent people from entering the space. I tend not to dwell on some of these more emotive issues, but they are out there and are things people need to be aware of.”

 

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