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

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 (NYSE: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 (OTC:PDYPY) and Entain. Rush Street Interactive (NYSE:RSI), Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ:PENN) and DraftKings Inc (NASDAQ: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.

Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF (BATS: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 (NYSE:NUE), Eaton Corp (NYSE:ETN), Vulcan Materials (NYSE:VMC), Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) and Trane Technologies (NYSE:TT).

Defiance Digital Revolution ETF (NYSE: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 (NASDAQ:PLBY), Bitfarms (NASDAQ:BITF), Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA) and Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: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 (NYSE: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 (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE: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 (NASDAQ:EBAY) and Sea Ltd (NYSE: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 (NYSE: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 (NASDAQ:NVDA), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB), Roblox Corp (NYSE:RBLX), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Unity Software (NYSE: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.

BETZRoundhill Sports Betting & iGaming ETF

$19.401.15%

Overview

METAMeta Platforms Inc

$640.25-0.89%

ONLNProShares Online Retail ETF

$57.57-1.56%

PAVEGlobal X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF

$56.770.83%

AMZNAmazon.com Inc

$246.74-0.20%

BABAAlibaba Group Holding Ltd