How Does Agassi Invest $31 Million In Career Prize Money?

During his ATP Tour career, Andre Agassi played a strategic brand of baseline tennis that always saw him thinking two steps ahead. It’s no surprise that quality has carried into his investment strategies.

The former World No. 1 opened up in a recent interview about how he has invested his more than $31 million in career prize money – plus a hefty sum in endorsement deals – in order to maximise his net worth while positively impacting the lives of others.

“I bet on people, not on things,” said Agassi to the Economic Times. “A good idea can get screwed up and an average idea can become something really special because of people.”

But while Agassi was never afraid to gamble down break point or at 4-4 in a final set, his investment strategy is more conservative. He told the Economic Times that he opts for a clear risk approach that “may not see 10-12 per cent returns every year, but also [won’t] drop in value by 20 per cent.”

Although clear risk strategies are often seen as a hands-off approach, Agassi is far from that when it comes to his finances.

“I have my more high-risk investments that I personally engage with. Outside of that, I am happy to listen to any investment as a passive investor,” he said. “But there are one or two areas that I really connect with – like maybe education or sports – where I take a much more aggressive position [and] invest my time and money.”

Agassi has been betting on people through education for nearly 20 years. In 2001, his foundation launched the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, a public charter school in his hometown of Las Vegas. He has since teamed with an investment fund and helped finance the building of more than 90 charter schools across America in the past five years.

The tennis legend isn’t shy to admit his eighth-grade dropout status and said he hopes to prevent others, even those with the same athletic aspirations as his, from going down the same path.

“Education endows you with choice. My lack of education was probably the greatest vehicle to my commitment and interest In education,” he said. “[If] you’re successful in sports, but you spent a third of your life not preparing for the remaining two-thirds… that’s not ideal.”