The world has officially entered "World Cup time".
Just now, the 2022 Qatar World Cup officially opened, and the four-yearly football carnival feast was instantly ignited. As the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East and Arab region, it has set a number of historical records in one go: the investment amount is 220 billion US dollars (about 1.6 trillion yuan), the champion team will receive 42 million US dollars in prize money, the ticket price has set a new record, and the number of global viewers may reach 5 billion.
While the world's attention is focused on the World Cup, Qatar, the real "big moneyer" in the Middle East, has also become one of the focuses. Qatar is the world's third largest natural gas reserve, after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Qatar muffled to make a lot of money, becoming the EU's largest LNG importer, in the first three quarters of this year, Qatar's export revenue has exceeded 100 billion US dollars (about 720 billion yuan), the highest since 2014. Benefiting from natural gas exports, Qatar will have a per capita GDP of more than $100,000 this year, becoming the fourth richest country in the world and the richest country in the Middle East.
At present, A-shares will also officially enter the "World Cup time", and historical data shows that during the last five World Cups, the performance of important indexes is not bad. CITIC Securities believes that around the Qatar World Cup, it is recommended to focus on four main investment lines: sports lottery sales and operators, stadium facilities and equipment suppliers, electronic large-screen providers and leisure food and beverage providers.
The most trench World Cup in history
At 00:00 Beijing time on November 21, the 2022 World Cup officially kicked off in Qatar, where the host Qatar faced Ecuador, the "South American powerhouse", completely igniting the "Carnival" held by fans around the world every four years.
From the opening match of the day to the final at 23:00 on December 18, the Qatar 2022 World Cup will last 29 days, including 23 matchdays, 6 rest days, and a total of 64 matches in 8 stadiums.
As the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East and Arab region, Qatar has set a number of historical records in one fell swoop.
The first is that the Qatar World Cup will be the most expensive in history. In order to host this World Cup, Qatar, with a population of only 2.8 million, has invested 220 billion US dollars (about 1.6 trillion yuan), which is almost five times the sum of the previous seven World Cups.
Qatar has spent hundreds of billions not only to build stadiums, airports, hotels, shopping malls, subways, roads, but even to build a village called Lusail in the desert directly into the country's second largest city.
In addition to crazy infrastructure investment, Qatar is also very arrogant in terms of tournament prize money, and the prize money for the World Cup will be the highest in history. The winning team of this World Cup will receive $42 million in prize money, an increase of $4 million from 2018 and a record high, with the runner-up receiving $30 million and the third runner-up $27 million. Moreover, even teams that fail to break out of the group can receive $9 million in "red envelopes".
According to CCTV Finance and FIFA, subsidies are calculated according to the length of time players compete in the World Cup and are calculated in days, and it is expected that each player will bring $10,000 in subsidies per day to his club, and each player of the two finalist teams can bring $370,000 in subsidies to their respective clubs. How much prize money each player can allocate depends largely on the discretion of each football association.
In addition, according to reference reports, the ticket price of this World Cup is also the most expensive in history. Recently, a survey from sports research institute Keller Sport showed that Qatar World Cup tickets are the most expensive in the past 20 years, 59% higher than the World Cup in Russia four years ago, and the final ticket price is as high as 812 US dollars (about 5800 yuan).
FIFA said earlier that nearly 3 million tickets have been sold cumulatively at Qatar's eight stadiums.
This World Cup is likely to become the most watched one. FIFA President Gianni Infantino has said the Qatar World Cup is expected to attract 5 billion viewers worldwide. This figure is 40% more than the number of spectators of the last World Cup in Russia.
Data show that the 2018 World Cup attracted 47% of the world's population (3.572 billion people) to watch, China is the country with the largest number of people watching the World Cup in the world, 655.7 million people (not people) watched, accounting for 18.4% of the total population, 13.4 billion online views, a total of 4.37 billion hours of World Cup viewing time, all ranked first in the world.
In addition, the Qatar World Cup is the last World Cup in the Round of 32 format. From 2026, the World Cup will be expanded to 48 teams.
The real "gold lord" of the Middle East
While the world's attention is focused on the World Cup, Qatar, the real "big moneyer" in the Middle East, has also become one of the focuses.
In fact, Qatar, which belongs to the Middle East, does not have abundant oil resources. Qatar has oil reserves of about 2.5 billion tons, ranking 14th in the world, well below Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela, Iraq and Iran.
And what has made Qatar rich is natural gas, Qatar is the world's third-largest natural gas reserve and China's third-largest natural gas importer.
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Qatar is making a lot of money in silence. After the West launched gas sanctions against Russia, Qatar became the EU's largest LNG importer.
As of the first half of this year, Qatar's oil and gas revenue directly increased by two-thirds to $32 billion. In the first three quarters of this year, Qatar's export revenue has exceeded 100 billion US dollars (about 720 billion yuan), the highest since 2014.
According to the statistics of Global Finance, a well-known financial magazine in the United States, Qatar's per capita GDP will exceed $100,000 this year, becoming the fourth richest country in the world and the richest country in the Middle East.
Therefore, even investing heavily in the World Cup will not prevent Qatar Energy from making easy money in 2022. And as it continues to expand its production capacity and expand its territory in the international gas arena, Qatar will only earn more.
Many may be concerned about what Qatar, which spends $220 billion for the World Cup, will end up gaining.
First, benefiting from the dividends of the World Cup, flight bookings to Qatar have surged since 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels. According to Forward Keys, as of September 29, 2022, bookings for flights to Qatar from 10 countries between November 14 and December 24 were 10 times higher than in the same period in 2019. Among them, the number of flight bookings from Mexico and Argentina has increased by more than 70 times compared with before the epidemic. It is expected to attract about 1.2 million fans.
In addition, in terms of revenue, Nasser Alhat, CEO of the Qatar World Cup Organizing Committee, said in September that the 2022 Qatar World Cup revenue is expected to reach $17 billion.
A-shares enter "World Cup time"
With the opening of the World Cup, A-shares have officially entered the "World Cup time".
From the perspective of A-share performance, Wind data shows that during the last five World Cups, the performance of stock indexes is not bad. Among them, during the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, the Shanghai Composite Index rose by more than 10%. During the 2010 and 2018 World Cups, A-shares fell as a whole, but the decline was not large. Neither the Shanghai Composite Index nor the Shenzhen Component Index exceeded 10%. During the 2014 World Cup, A-shares were the least volatile, with the Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.84%.
Industry insiders generally believe that the performance of A-shares in the next month is still worth looking forward to, and some industries are likely to rise, in addition to sports including sponsorship, broadcasting, venue construction, etc., as well as lotteries, and peripheral derivatives, leisure food and other consumer fields.
CITIC Securities believes that around the Qatar World Cup, it is recommended to focus on four main investment lines:
Main line 1: Sports lottery sales and operators, sports lottery sales were strong during the World Cup in history, and under the background of strong supervision of Internet lottery, the Sports Lottery World Cup has a variety of gameplay, which can meet the needs of different consumers;
Main line 2: Suppliers of stadium facilities and equipment, in the short term, it is expected that the holding of the Qatar World Cup will enhance fans' enthusiasm for sports;
Main line three: electronic large screen providers, it is expected that large-scale sports events such as the World Cup and the Olympic Games will boost screen demand in the short term, and the medium and long-term Mini LED will accelerate its penetration in the backlight field, and the market scale will usher in a stage of rapid growth;
Main line four: leisure food and beverage providers, during the World Cup mainland fans food consumption increased significantly, beer companies often take advantage of the situation to launch new products, so as to promote product structure upgrading and achieve high-end development.
In addition, Deppon Securities also said in the latest research report that the World Cup, as one of the world's most notable events, has great commercial value and strong driving effect, in addition to sports itself, including sponsorship, broadcasting, venue construction, etc.; It will also drive consumer economic activities such as gambling, peripheral derivatives, cultural and sports activities, clothing, and viewing parties, with a relatively strong "theme investment" attribute.
Deppon Securities believes that two main lines are worth paying attention to: 1) cultural and sports industry targets: Xinghui Entertainment (which has the Espanyol football team), Lisheng Racing (related to racing and sports APP); Chinese sports industry (sports betting related); Yao Kee Technology (Sports Star Card), etc.; 2) Advertising gift service providers and other targets: Yuenlong Yatu, Visual China, Zhejiang Internet, Huayang Lianzhong, etc.
Responsible editor: Tactical Heng
Proofreader: Zhu Tianting
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