Knicks championship win fuels momentum ETF's early MSGS bet

As the New York Knicks and their fanbase celebrate the franchise’s first championship since 1973, the thrill stretches from Broadway to Wall Street with the surge of MSGS.

Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. (NYSE: MSGS) includes both the NBA’s New York Knicks and New York Rangers of the NHL. The stock, which is majority controlled by Knicks and Rangers owner James Dolan, has had its share price more than double over the past year and is up 54% over the past six months to now trade around $368 per share.

In February, the MSGS board of directors announced it has approved a plan to split its Knicks and Rangers entities to create two distinct publicly traded companies. That planned transaction has not happened yet, but news of the split in February prompted MarketDesk’s quantitative Focused U.S. Momentum ETF (ticker: FMTM) to buy shares of MSGS weeks before the Knicks began their playoff run on April 18.

“FMTM being an entirely data-driven systematic momentum fund started buying shares at the Knicks parent company all the way back in late February,” said MarketDesk managing director Jon Clements. “The algorithm is not reading a sports page, it's never watched a basketball game, but it noticed the momentum in the share price of the parent company. That momentum really is just information showing up in the price before it shows up in the headlines."

FMTM is up roughly 30% year to date and 67% since the ETF first listed in March 2025. The fund, now priced around $42 per share, consists of between 30 and 50 stocks across US large and mid caps with MarketDesk’s algorithm dictating trades. FMTM owns 16,468 shares of MSGS, 3.41% of the fund’s total portfolio as of June 12, according to Stock Analysis. 

“I think what the algorithm was picking up on all the way back in February was the announcement that the parent company is looking at splitting out the Knicks and the Rangers. Two separate franchises that the sum of the parts is probably more valuable than combined together,” said Clements. “That's been driving a lot of the value extension. Of course, having a world-renowned franchise like the Knicks win the NBA Finals only increases the team's value even further.” 

The average holding period for a company in FMTM’s portfolio is between three and four months, according to Clements. The Dolan family, whose patriarch Charles founded Cablevision and HBO, has a history of dividing their businesses in hopes of more value—a higher stock price—for shareholders. 

James Dolan’s spinoffs in recent years include putting his Knicks and Rangers teams into MSGS, separately creating Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSGE) for his Madison Square Garden, Beacon Theater, Radio City Music Hall and other venues. Meanwhile, Dolan’s Las Vegas Sphere venue became part of Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) stock in 2023. 

“This is kind of spread across history, where you've seen companies kind of split out operating businesses or operating franchises from one into two, and then ultimately that creates more value for shareholders,” said Clements. "Think of it as kind of unlocking value, because all of a sudden now you have two assets standalone that are worth more than fit together."

Clements pointed out that FMTM also bought The New York Times stock before Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed its $350 million investment in the newspaper earlier this year. The ETF’s algorithm also bought Casey’s General Stores (NASDAQ: CASY) and semiconductor manufacturer Coherent Corp. (NYSE: COHR) in March and April before the stocks were added into the S&P 500. 

“In any given month, there's about 60% or 70% turnover. What FMTM and the algorithm is focused on is, it's really looking at the last six months of data and finding areas of momentum across markets,” said Clements. 

The Knicks have a valuation of $10.1 billion, according to estimates published in February by CNBC. Last June, the Los Angeles Lakers were sold for $10 billion to Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter, setting the valuation record for a control-sale of a sports team.