5 ETFs To With Major Growth Potential In January And Beyond, From Sports Betting To The Metaverse

The year 2021 left behind some huge storylines for investors. The investment themes may carry over into 2022, which could make some thematic ETFs worth considering in January and further into the year.

Here is a look at five ETFs for investors to consider in 2022.

Roundhill Sports Betting & iGaming ETF BETZ

• Launched: June 2020
• Assets Under management: $287 million
• Price: $24.82
• 52-Week Range: $22.55 to $33.26
• Year-to-date: -4%

The Roundhill Sports Betting & iGaming ETF offers pure-play exposure to a high growth, well publicized storyline for investors and sports fans. More states are legalizing sports betting and more sports and teams are partnering with betting companies. After a strong 2020, this ETF ended 2021 down on the year.

The company counts many international names in the top 10 holdings including Kindred Group, Kambi Group, Flutter Entertainment PDYPY and Entain. Rush Street Interactive RSI, Penn National Gaming PENN and DraftKings Inc DKNG also rank in the top 10 holdings.

While there is some risk of sports pausing their seasons or delaying their games, sometimes a schedule change can work out as a positive with more dates for bettors to wager on.

The ETF and its holdings should get plenty of headlines in early January, with the NCAA Football Championship Game coming on Jan. 10, 2022. The ETF could also benefit from the NFL’s Super Bowl, which will be played on Feb. 13, 2022. Last year’s Super Bowl set a sports betting handle record and saw heavy customer acquisition promotions by company’s to boost user totals.

Related Link: Exclusive: BETZ ETF Co-Founder Talks Sports Betting Market, DraftKings, Barstool 

Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF PAVE

• Launched: March 2017
• Assets Under Management: $5.5 billion
• Price: $28.60
• 52-Week Range: $20.70 to $29.26
• Year-to-date: +33.7%

A strong performer in 2021, the infrastructure themed ETF could be set up for a strong 2022 with increased government spending and contract wins likely coming to many of its top holdings. The ETF is up 121% over the last three years and has been a strong performer. Top holdings include Nucor Corp NUE, Eaton Corp ETN, Vulcan Materials VMC, Fastenal FAST and Trane Technologies TT.

Defiance Digital Revolution ETF NFTZ

• Launched: December 2021
• Assets Under Management: $10 million
• Price: $20.18
• 52-Week Range: $17.90 to $20.32
• Year-to-date: N/A

The relatively new Digital Revolution ETF from Defiance is likely to get some attention heading into the new year. The pure play ETF holds a basket of stocks of companies that have entered the non-fungible token space or announced plans to enter the sector. The ETF will also hold cryptocurrency mining and cryptocurrency banking related companies.

The ETF will rebalance on a quarterly basis. The fund’s initial makeup was broken down as 32.5% NFT stocks, 25.9% cryptocurrency mining stocks, 21.9% cryptocurrency asset management and trading stocks, 15.2% crypto banking, payments and services stocks and 4.6% blockchain technology stocks. Top holdings in the ETF include Plby Group PLBY, Bitfarms BITF, Marathon Digital Holdings MARA and Coinbase Global COIN.

Until investors have the opportunity to put money into an ETF that holds NFTs directly similar to a DAO, this could be the next best option for pure-play exposure.

ProShares Online Retail ETF ONLN

• Launched: July 2018
• Assets Under Management: $709 million
• Price: $57.31
• 52-Week Range: $54.59 to $93.45
• Year-to-date: -24.1%

January will likely be the time investors and retailers find out exactly how good the holiday shopping quarter was. One trend that hasn’t seemed to go away is the shift to buying and selling items online instead of venturing to physical stores. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated growth for online retailers and showed just how easy and convenient it could be to buy items like groceries online and holiday shopping as well.

This ETF counts Amazon.com AMZN and Alibaba Group Holding BABA as its two largest holdings at 26.4% and 10.7%, making the fund a big bet on two top global ecommerce companies. Other top holdings include eBay Inc EBAY and Sea Ltd SE. While Amazon had a strong 2021, Alibaba shares have been hit hard by concerns over Chinese public companies. The ETF could have several storylines in 2022 with the strength of the 2021 holiday shopping season among the largest.

Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF META

• Launched: June 2021
• Assets Under Management: $897 million
• Price: $15.60
• 52-Week Range: $13.75 to $17.11
• Year-to-date: N/A

In half a year, the Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF has generated almost $1 billion in assets under management. The ETF is the first pure play ETF with exposure to the growth of the metaverse, a term that has increased in search results and implied long-term valuation. Top holdings of the ETF include NVIDIA Corp NVDA, Meta Platforms FB, Roblox Corp RBLX, Microsoft Corp MSFT and Unity Software U.

As interest in the metaverse continues, the companies that are considered winners of the sector's growth could be in for a strong 2022 and benefit this pure-play ETF.