Curated Houston is an independent Houston tourism & events guide — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to FIFA, the FIFA World Cup, or any official World Cup organization.

Partner & Acquire

Strategic Partnership & Acquisition

The Infrastructure Behind
the World’s Biggest Event

HWC 2026 Club is not a fan website. It is the only independently built, AI-optimized, transactional fan experience platform for FIFA World Cup 2026 in Houston — and the operating system for every mega-event that follows.

REQUEST ACQUISITION OVERVIEW

The Opportunity

$1.5B
Houston economic impact
7 matches · 500,000 visitors

212
Countries with fans
purchasing FIFA tickets

$5,000
Average international fan
spend per trip · 12 days

16
World Cup host cities
2026 — same playbook, 16x

The Platform

We Operate Where On Location Doesn’t

On Location (TKO Group Holdings) is the official exclusive hospitality provider inside FIFA stadiums. They sell ticket-inclusive packages to premium fans already in seats.

We own what happens before the match, after the match, on off-days, and in the city. Food tours, watch parties, day trips, cultural immersion, wellness, nightlife — curated, booked, and delivered through structured pass products with live Stripe commerce.

On Location has no city-level experience product. Curated Houston fills that exact white space — and every international fan who books with us represents a first-party data profile that On Location, Fever, GetYourGuide, and every FIFA sponsor cannot access anywhere else.

This is not a local business. This is a platform.

The same operating system — pass tiers, AEO content, WhatsApp community mechanics, Stripe commerce, fan data architecture — deploys to Dallas, Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle, and all 16 host cities in weeks, not months.

The Data Asset

First-Party International Traveler Data.
The Most Valuable Uncaptured Segment in Sports.

Every transaction on this platform creates a first-party profile: name, country of origin, team affiliation, hotel location, spend patterns, dietary preferences, activity preferences. 500,000 visitors from 212 countries — captured at the point of purchase.

$32.7B
Netherlands–Houston trade relationship. Dutch fans at the June 20 match aren’t tourists — they’re Houston’s most important business community abroad.

$16.1B
Germany–Houston trade relationship. German fans at the June 14 opener represent Houston’s energy and manufacturing export market.

4–6x
CPM premium for international traveler segments vs. domestic general audience. Expedia charges advertisers for 175 targeting parameters on 70 petabytes of data.

$128B
Global experiential marketing market in 2024. City-level World Cup brand activation deals range $250K–$2M per brand per host city.

Compare: Airbnb Experiences. GetYourGuide (75,000 experiences, $2B valuation). Fever ($724M revenue, $1.956B valuation). None have a World Cup–specific, sports-tourism–optimized data layer. This platform does.

The AI Moat

When a Fan From Germany Asks ChatGPT
“What Do I Do in Houston?” — We Are the Answer.

ChatGPT processes 700 million weekly queries. Google AI Overviews appear in 50% of all US searches. When those engines are asked about World Cup fan experiences in Houston, every current source being cited is editorial — no commerce, no conversion, no data capture.

HWC 2026 Club is the only transactional platform optimized for AI citation. Fans read the AI answer, see structured experience data — price, booking link, pass tier — and convert without ever visiting a search results page.

The window is closing. AI models are being trained now on what sources to cite. A platform that owns the citation in Houston owns it for the duration of the event — and displacing that authority takes competitors 12–18 months of content to challenge.

The same AEO infrastructure deploys across all 16 host cities.

First mover in Houston → Dallas → Miami → Los Angeles → Seattle. One platform owns the AI answer for World Cup fan experiences in every city. That is the content moat that Fever, GetYourGuide, and On Location cannot build before June 14.

The Pipeline

Houston Is Match One.
This Infrastructure Runs for a Decade.

2026
FIFA World Cup
16 host cities · 11 USA · $40B economic impact · 5 million visitors

2027
FIFA Women’s World Cup
Brazil · same platform, new market

2028
LA Summer Olympics
Los Angeles · largest sporting event in US history · platform already proven

2030
FIFA World Cup
Spain · Portugal · Morocco · 6 continents

2032
Brisbane Olympics
Australia · platform is the infrastructure, not the event

Conservative model: capturing 1–2% of economic activity as platform revenue across all 16 World Cup 2026 cities = $100–300M from this tournament alone. At 5–7x revenue, that is the $2B conversation.

Comparable Exits

The Market Has Already Priced This Space.

Company Event / Acquirer Price / Valuation Multiple
On Location Endeavor acquisition (2020) $660M ~5–7x est.
On Location + IMG + PBR TKO Group Holdings (2025) $3.25B Portfolio
Legends Global Sixth Street Partners (2021) $1.35B ~1.35x on $1B rev
Fever Last private round (2023) $1.956B 2.7x on $724M rev
GetYourGuide Last funding round (2023) $2B 2–3x revenue
Sports services deals Total M&A market 2024 $31.64B 4x vs 2023

Platform businesses in sports/travel experiences trade at 2–7x revenue. A PE roll-up thesis (Houston → all 16 WC cities + 2028 Olympics + 2030 WC) justifies 8–12x EBITDA or 5–8x revenue at exit to a strategic.

Ideal Partners

This Call Is For You If…

You’re On Location / TKO

You own the inside of every FIFA stadium. We own the outside. Together you have the complete premium fan experience from arrival to final whistle — and the first-party data to match. The white space in your portfolio has a name.

You’re Fever or GetYourGuide

You’re the largest local experience platforms on earth — and you have zero World Cup–specific product, zero sports-tourism data layer, zero Houston presence. The acquisition closes a gap your competitors will exploit in 2026, 2028, and beyond.

You’re a PE Fund

The roll-up thesis is written. Buy Houston. Deploy to Dallas, Miami, LA, Seattle by August 2026. Own the 2028 LA Olympics platform before a single competitor knows what you’re building. Sports services deals hit $31.64B in 2024 — 4x year over year.

You’re a Houston Investor

The Netherlands is Houston’s #1 trading partner. Germany is #6. The World Cup is not a tourist event — it’s the global business community of Houston’s most important economic relationships walking through our city for three weeks. Be in the room.

85 Days to the First Match.

The window for first-mover positioning closes when the tournament starts. Strategic conversations that begin now shape where this platform goes after June 14.

START THE CONVERSATION

admin@seniorliving.expert · Houston, TX

⚽ the 2026 international football tournament Houston
--Days
:
--Hrs
:
--Min
:
--Sec
Join the Club
Curated Houston Join the Club
Join the Club — Get the Free Houston Insider Guide
Welcome to the Club. Check your email.