Those who are even slightly interested in the activities of Forbes magazine are probably familiar with the ranking of athletes from the highest paid sports. The real income they receive for their sporting achievements, not even counting profits from advertising companies, is really impressive – not everyone has a tidy nine-figure sum in their bank account, and that’s only in dollars. It’s crucial, however, to balance this fascination with wealth by promoting responsible gaming. Calculating the highest paid sports is not as easy as it may seem at first glance. Simply taking the most expensive athletes and based on their income to draw conclusions about the highest paid sports is not enough, because their income is not only from the salary for matches or fights, but also from their profits for participation in advertising their products or advertising other companies.
Ranking the most lucrative sports
Contrary to what many people think, calculating the highest paid sports is not as easy as it may seem at first glance. Simply taking the most expensive athletes and based on their income to draw conclusions about the highest paid sports is not enough, because their income is not only from the salary for matches or fights, but also from their profits for participation in advertising their products or advertising other companies.
It is much more correct to take the average salaries of the players of the best clubs in the chosen sports.
1st place: Football
The most famous teams such as Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona can afford to pay their players $7 million a year. This has made football the best paid sport. The popularity of football among the general public on all continents has also played a role.
2nd place: Tennis
Winning a cup tennis tournament can bring an athlete a ‘modest’ fortune of several million dollars. In addition, immediately after the game, the newly minted winner is immediately met by a huge number of sponsors willing to sign lucrative contracts, most often related to product advertising or photo shoots for brands. All this makes a good supplement to the athlete’s fee for merits in this sport.
The richest tennis player is Roger Federer. The 42-year-old Roger’s entire career has brought him almost $116 million in total, and that’s just the prize money. Advertising brings Federer really big money, and it is not surprising because deals with the world giants (Barilla, Nike, Mercedes, Rolex, Wilson, and others) bring the tennis player about $65 million annually.
3rd place: Basketball
There’s no way a list of the highest paid athletes in the world with multi-million dollar salaries would be without basketball players. Like football, basketball is an insanely popular sport that allows National League Baseball players to earn more than $4 million a year.
4th place: Boxing
Boxing is rightly considered the most spectacular sport. To become the best in this sport is very difficult – you need to have outstanding physical performance, real resilience and the desire to win at all costs. Boxers are constantly developing skills such as manual dexterity, quickness of reaction, watching the coherence of the work of legs and arms, training over blows.
Naturally, such labor, though not completely, is justified by the luxury in which the most famous of them live.
5th place: Formula 1
No matter what anyone says, racing continues to be a highly sought-after sport, especially for adrenaline, speed, and risk lovers. The most successful athletes receive at least $30 million a year.
The most famous driver in the history of Formula 1 was Michael Schumacher. The man finished his career in 2012, but he still holds an honourable position in the list of the richest athletes in the world, with total earnings of $1 billion.
6th place: Golf
The most prestigious and expensive sport in modern realities is golf. It is golfers who occupy the most prominent lines of the rankings of the richest athletes in the world.
Tiger Woods, with total earnings of $1.65 billion at the peak of his career, quietly earned $115-120 million a year. At the moment, the golfer does not participate in tournaments much, but his former merits are not forgotten neither by us, nor by his numerous sponsors, who, by the way, annually give Tiger $45 million.
Arnold Palmer also deserves attention. Even though the prize money brought him only $3.6 million, until the end of his life, he received advertising income from brands. There, the sum is impressive – $40 million a year. Such earnings allowed Arnold to reach total earnings of $1.35bn.
