SPORTSPERSONS’ EARNINGS FROM ENDORSEMENTS

SPORTSPERSONS’ EARNINGS FROM ENDORSEMENTS

Badminton star PV Sindhu has made it into the list of 2023’s highest paid women athletes by Forbes where she finished at the 16th spot alongside gymnast Simone Biles with her $7.1 million earnings, of which $7 million is from off the field. Let’s look at a few sportspersons, both from India and the world, with some of the highest earnings from brand endorsements…

Cristiano Ronaldo

Roger Federer

While Forbes named Roger Federer the world’s highest-paid athlete for the first time in 2020, the 2023 list puts him at 9th with salary/winnings of $100,000 and endorsements worth $95 million. As per Forbes, the biggest deal in the

42-year-old Swiss former professional tennis player’s stable is Japanese apparel brand Uniqlo, which locked him up in 2018 under a 10-year, $300-million deal, as opposed to Nike’s previous agreement, which was for roughly $10 million per year. Since 2021, Federer has worn tennis shoes produced by On, a Swiss-based athletic shoe and sports apparel manufacturer, in which he became a shareholder in November 2019. A limited edition lifestyle shoe named ‘The Roger’ was released by On in July 2020.

LeBron James

LeBron James, the 39-year-old American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers, is the first active NBA player to become a billionaire, with Forbes estimating his net worth at $1 billion in June 2022. In the 2023 ‘World’s Highest-Paid Athletes’ list, he’s ranked 4th, with salary/ winnings of $44.5 million and endorsements worth $75 million. Nicknamed ‘King James’ and widely recognised as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport – and often compared to Michael Jordan in debates over the greatest basketball player of all time — James has raked in upwards of $900 million (pretax) off the court, according to Forbes estimates, from business ventures and endorsement deals with the likes of PepsiCo, Walmart and Nike.

Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli continues to be the topper of brand endorsements in India with 30 brands, as per the GroupM ESP Sporting Nation Report 2023 released last year. From being a brand ambassador to ethnic wear brand Manyavar, tech brand Noise and e-commerce company Myntra, among others, the 35-year-old former captain of the Indian national cricket team, is dominating the brand endorsement space in the country. In 2013, it was reported that his endorsements were valued at over $13 million. In 2023, his brand value reached $130 million, as per reports. His bat deal with MRF is regarded as one of the most financially rewarding deals in cricket history. In 2017, Kohli entered into a notable endorsement agreement with Puma that spanned over eight years and was estimated to be worth around $14 million, as per reports. As per Forbes’ World’s Highest-Paid Athletes 2020′ list, Kohli was ranked 66th with salary/winnings of $2 million and endorsements worth $24 million.

PV Sindhu

In 2022, PV Sindhu was placed 12th among the Forbes’ ‘World’s Highest Paid Female Athletes’ with her $7.1 million earnings in a list which was led by Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka. Sindhu, who is the first and only Indian to become the badminton world champion and only the second individual athlete from India to win two consecutive medals at the Olympic Games, had broken into the top 10 in the 2018 list with $8.5 million, which placed her at 7th. The 28-year-old athlete, who endorsed about 10 endorsements at the end of 2020, has seen her brand value increasing from $12 million to $26.5 million in 2022, as per Kroll’s Celebrity Brand Valuation Report 2022. This year, she added partnerships with Centuary Mattress and American Pistachio Growers, as per Forbes.