Football Field Valuation

What is the Football Field Valuation?

One of the most common slides in an investment banking pitchbook is the football field.

The football field is a floating bar chart in Excel that puts several valuation analyses side-by-side to provide clients with the full context of a company’s value using a variety of methodologies and assumptions.

A typical football field valuation matrix will include company value based on:

DCF valuation
LBO analysis
Comparable company analysis
Comparable transaction analysis
Trading 52-week high and low
Liquidation analysis (optional)
Sum of the Parts Analysis (optional)

Football Field Valuation Chart: Role in Pitch Books

The purpose of the football field valuation is to create a visual summary of all the valuation analyses that were performed on a company and to demonstrate a valuation range based on those valuation methodologies.

The goal of the football field valuation chart summary is to sanity-check various methodologies against one another.

For example, a comparable company analysis might show high valuations during strong equity markets while an intrinsic DCF valuation might show a lower valuation. The football field places those alternative valuation approaches side by side when arriving at a valuation range. In addition to being a staple of the investment banking pitch book, it is also used in fairness opinions.

Learn More → Investment Banking Primer

Football Field Valuation Matrix: Excel Template

Before watching the excerpt from Wall Street Prep’s full Financial Modeling Training Package, use the form below to follow along with our free football field valuation template.