The 2022 Qatar World Cup officially opened and the quadrennial football carnival was instantly ignited. As the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East and the Arab region, a number of historical records have been set: an investment of US $220 billion (about RMB 1.6 trillion), a bonus of US $42 million for the winning team, a record ticket price, and a global audience of 5 billion.

While the global attention is focused on the World Cup, Qatar, the real "big financier" of the Middle East, has also become one of the focuses. Qatar is the third largest natural gas reserve country in the world. After the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Qatar made a lot of money and became the largest importer of liquefied natural gas in the European Union. Qatar's export revenue in the first three quarters of this year has exceeded 100 billion US dollars.720 billion yuan), the highest since 2014. Benefiting from natural gas exports, Qatar's per capita GDP this year will exceed 100000 US dollars, making it the fourth richest country in the world and the richest country in the Middle East.

At present, A shares will officially enter the "World Cup time". Historical data show that during the last five World Cups, the performance of important indexes is not poor.CITIC believes that around the World Cup in Qatar, it is recommended to focus on four main investment lines: sports lottery sales and operators, sports venue facilities and equipment suppliers, electronic large screen providers and leisure food and beverage providers.

The most trench World Cup in history

The 2022 World Cup officially kicked off in Qatar on November 21, Beijing time, when the host Qatar played Ecuador, the "strong team of South America", completely igniting the quadrennial "Carnival" for fans around the world.

From the opening match of the day to the final at 23:00 on December 18, the 2022 Qatar World Cup will last 29 days, including 23 match days and 6 rest days, with a total of 64 games in eight stadiums.

As the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East and the Arab region, Qatar set a number of historical records in one go.

First, the Qatar World Cup will be the most expensive in history. Qatar, with a population of only 2.8 million, spent $220 billion (1.6 trillion yuan) to host the World Cup, almost five times the cost of the previous seven World Cups combined.

Qatar has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to build new stadiums, airports, hotels, shopping malls, subways and roads, and even to build a desert village called Lusail into the country's second largest city.

In addition to crazy infrastructure investment, Qatar is also very aggressive in terms of prize money, which will be the highest in the history of this World Cup. The winner of the World Cup will receive a prize of $42 million, an increase of $4 million over 2018 and an all-time high, with $30 million for the runner-up and $27 million for the second runner-up. Moreover, even if the team does not break out of the group, it can still get a "red packet" of $9 million.

According to CCTV Finance and FIFA, the subsidy is calculated on a daily basis according to the length of time for players to play in the World Cup, and each player is expected to bring a subsidy of US $10, 000 to his club every day. Each player of the two teams who reached the finals can bring a subsidy of US $370000 to their respective clubs. As for how much bonus each player can get, it depends to a large extent on the decision of each football association.

In addition, according to the reference report, the ticket price of this World Cup is also the most expensive in history. According to a recent survey by sports research firm Keller Sport, tickets for the World Cup in Qatar are the most expensive in the past 20 years, 59% higher than the World Cup in Russia four years ago, and the final ticket price is as high as $812 (5800 yuan).

FIFA said earlier that nearly 3 million tickets had been sold in eight stadiums in Qatar.

The World Cup is likely to be the one with the largest number of viewers. FIFA President Invantino has said that the World Cup in Qatar is expected to attract 5 billion viewers around the world. This figure is 40% more than the audience of the last World Cup in Russia.

Statistics show that the 2018 World Cup attracted 47 percent of the world's population (3.572 billion people) to watch the World Cup. China is the country with the largest number of people watching the World Cup in the world, with 655.7 million people (rather than people) watching, accounting for 18.4 percent of the total population and 13.4 billion online broadcasts. A total of 4.37 billion hours of World Cup viewing time, all ranked first in the world.

In addition, the Qatar World Cup is the last World Cup in the final 32 system. From 2026, the World Cup will be expanded to 48 teams.

The real "financier" of the Middle East

While the global attention is focused on the World Cup, Qatar, the real "big financier" of the Middle East, has also become one of the focuses.

In fact, Qatar, which belongs to the Middle East, is not rich in oil resources. Qatar has oil reserves of about 2.5 billion tons, ranking 14th in the world, far below Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela, Iraq and Iran.

It is natural gas that has made Qatar rich. Qatar is the world's third-largest gas reserves and China's third-largest importer of natural gas.

Qatar is making a lot of money after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Qatar has become the EU's largest importer of liquefied natural gas after the West launched natural gas sanctions against Russia.

As of the first half of this year, Qatar's oil and gas revenues directly soared by 2/3 to US $32 billion. In the first three quarters of this year, Qatar's export revenue exceeded $100 billion (720 billion yuan), the highest since 2014.

According to the statistics of Global Finance, a well-known financial magazine in the United States, Qatar's per capita GDP will exceed 100000 US dollars this year, making it the fourth richest country in the world and the richest country in the Middle East.

Therefore, even if a large amount of money is invested in the World Cup, it will not prevent Qatar Energy from making easy money in 2022. And as it continues to expand its capacity and expand its territory in the international natural gas arena, Qatar will only make more money.

Many people may wonder what Qatar, which spends 220 billion dollars for the World Cup, will eventually get.

First, thanks to World Cup dividends, the number of flight bookings to Qatar has surged since 2022 compared with before the outbreak. As of September 29, 2022, the number of flights from 10 countries to Qatar between November 14 and December 24 was 10 times that of the same period in 2019, according to Forward Keys. Among them, the number of flight bookings from Mexico and Argentina is more than 70 times higher than before the epidemic. It is expected to attract about 1.2 million fans to watch the game.

In addition, in terms of revenue, Nasser Alhart, chief executive of the Qatar World Cup Organizing Committee, said in September that revenue from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is expected to reach 17 billion US dollars.

A shares enter "World Cup time"

With the opening of the World Cup, A shares have officially entered the "World Cup time".

Judging from the performance of A-shares, Wind data show that the stock index has performed well during the last five World Cups. Among them, during the 2002 and 2006 World Cup, the Shanghai Composite Index rose by more than 10%. During the 2010 and 2018 World Cup, A shares fell as a whole, but not by much. Neither the Shanghai Composite Index nor the Shenzhen Composite Index exceeds 10%. During the 2014 World Cup, A shares fluctuated the least, with the Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.84 per cent.

Industry insiders generally believe that the performance of A-shares in the coming month is still worth looking forward to, and some industries are likely to rise, in addition to sports, including sponsorship, broadcasting, venue construction, etc., as well as lotteries, and surrounding derivatives, snack food and other consumer areas.

CITIC believes that around the World Cup in Qatar, it is recommended to focus on four main investment lines:

Main line one: sports lottery sales and operatorsIn history, the sales of sports lottery tickets are strong during the World Cup. Under the background of strong supervision of Internet lottery tickets, there are various ways to play sports lottery tickets in the World Cup, which can meet the needs of different consumers to buy lottery.

Main line 2: suppliers of stadiums, facilities and equipmentIn the short term, it is expected that the holding of the World Cup in Qatar will enhance the sports enthusiasm of fans.

Main line 3: electronic large screen providerIt is expected that large-scale sports events such as the World Cup and the Olympic Games will boost screen demand in the short term, and Mini LED will accelerate its penetration in the backlight field in the medium and long term, and the market scale will usher in a stage of rapid growth.

Main line 4: leisure food and beverage providerDuring the World Cup, the food consumption of Chinese fans increased significantly, beer enterprises often take advantage of the opportunity to launch new products, so as to promote the upgrading of product structure and achieve high-end development.

In addition, Debon Securities also said in the latest research report that the World Cup, as one of the most eye-catching events in the world, has great commercial value and strong driving effect, in addition to sports itself, including sponsorship, broadcasting, venue construction, etc., but also promotes gambling, and consumer economic activities such as derivatives, sports and sports activities, clothing, and match-watching parties around it, with a strong attribute of "theme investment".

Debon Securities believes that two main lines are worth paying attention to:1) the target of the culture and sports industry:Star Entertainment (with Spanish football team), Lisheng car racing (racing and sports APP related), Chinese sports industry (sports betting related), Yao Ji Technology (sports star star card), etc.2) Advertising gift service providers and other targets:Yuanlong Yatu, Visual China, Zhejiang language interconnection, Huayang Lianzhong and so on.