Shares that might deliver YOU large returns in the course of the summer season of sport

Athletes at the peak of their abilities are vying for glory this summer at the Olympic Games and in the Euros football tournament.

But it is not only medals and trophies that are stake.

Companies worth billions are spending a fortune to make sure that, no matter who wins, they will be celebrating.

Experts at Experian, the credit ratings firm, reckon ‘sport-obsessed’ Britons could splash out an additional £233million in pubs and supermarkets over the next three months during the events. And, for investors, it is an opportunity to ask which shares might benefit from the summer’s excitement and still deliver good returns when the crowds have gone home.

This summer’s sporting events are big business.

Olympics organisers are targeting more than £1billion in sponsorship revenues with the Euros set to raise hundreds of millions.

Whether they are formal ‘partners’ to the events or not, companies are hoping to cash in on greater demand from beer and barbecues to sportswear.

Sports are also a hot ticket for advertisers and broadcasters – even if some traditional forms of marketing are moving away from TV to social media.

So where should investors going for gold put their money?

Here are the shares that the experts say may turn out to be winners – but bear in mind, these are ideas, not investment advice.

You can buy and sell shares in UK and European companies using an online platform (a kind of financial supermarket) such as AJ Bell, Interactive Investor or Hargreaves Lansdown. If you do not already have an Isa (individual savings account) you can open one of these tax-free accounts in which you can stash up to £20,000 worth of shares each tax year.

LVMH

The French luxury goods giant, which owns brands such as Christian Dior, Hennessy and Tiffany, will be at the heart of the Paris Olympics.

Its Moet & Chandon champagne will be served to VIPs while the medals – each of which will incorporate a piece of the original metal structure of the Eiffel Tower – have been designed by its 244-year-old jewellery house, Chaumet.

LVMH’s boss Bernard Arnault, the world’s second richest man, regards the Olympics as a golden opportunity to showcase his brands.

The backdrop is that sales of luxury goods have recently weakened. Newly well-off Chinese people, who are the world’s biggest fans of expensive watches, bags and baubles, have been spending less due to the bombed-out property market there. There are also worries over political turmoil in LVMH’s home country of France, where the far-Right performed well in the recent European elections.

A change in political leadership could hit the French economy and stock market.

Despite these challenges, experts highlight the ‘good fundamentals’ of this €355billion colossus of famous brands with heritage.

The shares have fallen this year by 15pc to €712, but over the past decade they are up by 390pc over the past decade. City experts reckon the shares could rise to €875 or even as high as €1,000.

Adidas

German sportswear giant Adidas is on home turf for the Euros.

Germany’s national football team has been sporting its three-striped logo since 1950. But the team stunned the company when it announced earlier this year that it will switch to America’s Nike in 2027.

In this summer’s tournament, Adidas is getting behind England’s stand-out talent Jude Bellingham with an emotive ‘Hey Jude’ TV ad. France’s megastar Kylian Mbappe is in arch-rival Nike’s stable.

The brands will tussle again in Paris where Adidas will sponsor Team GB. Sportswear firms are keen to generate buzz around the Games for Gen Z – youngsters born between 1997 and 2012.

The company posted its first loss in more than three decades in 2023, after it abandoned a deal with rapper Kanye West, over anti-Semitic comments he made on Twitter.

Shares in Adidas – whose hip low-rise Gazelle trainers are a hit – have risen nearly 25 per cent over the past 12 months under boss Bjorn Gulden, who took over at the start of 2023. Gulden declared performance in 2023 was ‘by far not good enough’ overall, but that by the end of the year it had recovered better than he expected.

Aarin Chiekrie, a shares expert at investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown, says: ‘Adidas will be looking to get on the front foot this tournament, with many fans wearing its eye-catching German, Spanish and Italian kits. After a challenging 2023, which saw revenue and profits wide of the post, Adidas could be poised to score impressive growth this year.’

The shares have risen by 17pc this year to €217. Experts are targeting an average price of €224.

ITV

The broadcaster will be counting on an advertising sales boost during its coverage of the Euros. This time it will be streaming matches on its ITV X platform as well as showing them on its traditional channel.

Susannah Streeter, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘Digital advertising is the bright spot of growth for the company and there was a super surge of streaming activity during the World Cup that bodes well for the Euros.’

Russ Mould of rival investment firm AJ Bell added: ‘ITV’s digital strategy looks to be delivering. The ITV X platform is attracting users and advertising at an impressive rate. The Euros will provide the usual kicker to advertising spend and ITV is looking to become a more streamlined and focused operation.’

He points out that shares are up by 28pc this year to 80p, but are still 25pc down on their level of five years ago.

So now might be a good time to buy. City analysts have a price target of 92p. Some also argue that there could be a takeover bid for the business, which would send the price up. Netflix is seen as a potential predator.

TESCO

Supermarkets stand to benefit over the summer, especially if England go deep into the late stages of the Euros. An extended run into July should mean households stocking up on beer and – if the weather holds up – sausages and burgers for the barbecue.

Tesco boss Ken Murphy said the retailer was ‘looking forward to helping our customers celebrate a great summer of sport’.

Hargreaves Lansdown’s Streeter said: ‘The grocers who dug deep to keep prices low, like Tesco and Sainsbury’s, have seen growth in market share, and their product ranges are being tweaked to sell everything from bucket hats to barbecues to benefit from the frenzy of summer sports excitement.’

Aside from the vagaries of the football and the Olympics, Tesco is a solid business. It shares are up 20 per cent in the past 12 months and are 50 per cent higher than in September 2022. They are buoyed by rising sales and profits and increased confidence coming from boss Murphy.

Tesco accounts for almost 28 per cent of the UK food retail market – way ahead of its rivals. It is gaining market share from competitors, and the bigger it becomes the more bargaining power it has with suppliers, enabling it to keep prices down. Its Clubcard is also a valuable trove of information about customers.

City experts predict sales of more than £69billion for the year to March 2025, with profits nudging £2.4billion and a 13.1p a share dividend.

Experts are targeting 335p from the current 306p.

MARKS & SPENCER

The high street stalwart has got behind England as official tailor to the national side. It has supplied the players’ off-field casual outfits – which each sell for £205 – to showcase its menswear range.

M&S has gone from strength to strength under the leadership of chief executive Stuart Machin.

The shares are back in the FTSE 100 index after a four-year absence following a slump in its fortunes. It has also announced it is paying its first dividend since 2019. Profits for 2023 were better than the City expected at £716million, up from £453million the previous year.

Analyst Jonathan Pritchard at broker Peel Hunt said: ‘Given normal seasonal trends you would expect Marks & Spencer to enjoy the summer more than it ever has done before. In product positioning… it’s better than it’s ever been.’

M&S has dashed investors hopes a number of times in the past but shareholders are hoping this time it really is different. The only cloud on the horizon is the troubled joint venture with the online supermarket Ocado.

M&S said the venture was now seeing encouraging growth but admitted that ‘profitability is well below the original business plan and expectations’.

Shares are up by 60 per cent to 299p over the past year, but, despite this surge, they are still as much as 30 per cent below their level of a decade ago. Some experts believe that they could advance further to 380p.