Each of the NHL team funds would track a benchmark index based on 55 statistical measures. Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images files

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An American investment company has filed to launch a series of exchange-traded funds that will allow hockey fans to speculate on the performance of NHL teams, but some investment professionals say the products sound a lot like gambling by another name.

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On Friday, Volatility Shares Trust filed a prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) outlining plans to create 32 individual ETFs tied to every team in the NHL. The Florida-based firm specializes in leveraged, crypto-linked and volatility-linked ETFs.

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Each of the NHL team funds would track a benchmark index based on 55 statistical measures that would provide “continuous, live statistical values” for each team, according to the SEC filing.

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The ETFs would hold futures contracts tied to those indices and would not involve equity in the teams or any form of ownership.

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Using the Toronto Maple Leafs ETF as an example, positive actions (Auston Matthews scoring a goal) would add value to the ETF, while negative ones (Max Domi getting a penalty) would subtract value. If the price of the fund’s futures contract rises, investors would make money.

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“The prices of futures contracts are expected to rise when the team performs well statistically and to fall when the team performs poorly,” according to the SEC filing.

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Each index would have a standard base value of 7,500, then move up or down in real time based on statistics and during regular and post-season play before resetting each season.

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The prospectus notes that the price of a particular team’s futures contracts “may not be an accurate measure” of the corresponding index. For example, there’s no guarantee that the performance of Maple Leafs Index futures contracts will be “highly correlated” to the performance of the Maple Leafs Index.

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Every team is also susceptible to risks that effect on-ice performance including “player injuries, suspensions, trades, retirements, coaching changes, front-office turnover, league sanctions, labour disputes (and) lockouts.”

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The proposed ETFs appear to be “very similar” to prediction markets, said Dimitri Busevs, president and chief executive of RBC Direct Investing. He said the risk of public harm and exploitation is high with speculative investment products, particularly among younger generations and early-stage investors.

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“We have certainly seen it with crypto. There’s a draw to these alternative assets that offer more upside in return for more risk. There’s that whole YOLO (you only live once) mentality from the early days of meme stocks,” Busevs said. “We think there’s a real danger that you may end up misleading a whole generation in terms of what investing is and what it isn’t.”

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The ETF has no “financial instrumentation” around it but is rather about people engaging to win or lose money, which “really looks, feels and smells like gambling,” said Samer Nusier, vice president and managing director of product and strategy of RBC Direct Investing and InvestEase.