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Life on the court docket has been a grind for Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams during the last six months. Accidents, stunning losses and skipped tournaments have restricted the pair to solely 9 on-court WTA match wins mixed since February, when Osaka captured the Australian Open after defeating Williams within the semifinal. And but, their advertising and marketing would possibly stays at historic ranges.
Osaka ($55.2 million) and Williams ($35.5 million) headline the world’s highest-paid feminine athletes, with greater than 90% of their totals earned off the court docket from endorsement companions. The drop-off after the tennis stars is very large, as third-ranked Simone Biles earned simply $6 million, in accordance with Sportico’s estimates.
Osaka’s record tally ranks No. 15 amongst all athletes—male or feminine—whereas Williams completed No. 44 for earnings through the 12 months by Could 2021. Roger Federer, LeBron James and Tiger Woods are the only active athletes to earn greater than Osaka from endorsements through the previous yr.
“Osaka’s model, whereas turning into sophisticated to many, stays compelling, particularly within the present sports activities advertising and marketing period, one seemingly underscored by activism and advocacy as a lot as achievement and character,” mentioned David Carter, a principal of Sports activities Enterprise Group, an trade guide. “Whereas she’s going to proceed to be a sports activities advertising and marketing pressure, some will tune her out, whereas others will flip her up.”
Tennis has at all times been the surest hearth approach for feminine athletes to make financial institution. The prize cash is similar to the boys, and endemic sponsors like Nike and Adidas splash hundreds of thousands on the largest stars to assist goose their attire gross sales. However tennis earnings are down throughout the game exterior of Osaka and Williams. COVID-19 dented income and prize cash at many occasions, whereas Wimbledon, with its anticipated $55 million purse, was canceled altogether in 2020. The less occasions additionally triggered attire sponsors to slash funds wherever from 20-40% for many gamers. The consequence: Solely 30% of the present 10 highest-paid feminine athletes make their residing with a racket, down from 90% final yr and 100% in 2019.
The tennis downturn opened up room for a trio of South Korean golfers to make the lower, led by Jin Younger Ko at $5.3 million, together with $2.1 million in prize cash. Complete LPGA prize cash is $73.3 million this yr, up 77% up to now 10 years.
The LPGA Korean golf growth was launched by Se-ri Pak, who was the one Korean participant on the Tour when she joined full-time in 1998. She lit the Tour on hearth throughout her first decade, and by 2008, there have been 45 Korean LPGA members.
“Korea continues to be a really robust marketplace for each LPGA Tour gamers and for ladies’s golf generally, and recently, we now have seen a gradual enhance in sponsorship help coming from giant U.S. and international firms seeking to benefit from the LPGA’s international attain,” mentioned veteran agent JS Kang, who heads up Epoch Sports activities Group and represents a few of the prime LPGA gamers; Kang wouldn’t disclose any contractual particulars on his purchasers.
Soccer stars Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, in addition to skier Mikaela Shiffrin, all made at the least $3.5 million from endorsements and cracked the highest 10, per Sportico estimates. That will not be NBA star sneaker cash, however it’s on par with what the largest stars in baseball and hockey earn off the sector and ice. Manufacturers like Mastercard wish to balance their sport sponsorships with investments in feminine athletes. Osaka’s agent Stuart Duguid instructed Sportico in Could that being a girl positively made her extra enticing to sponsors. “There’s an enormous push to put money into girls in sports activities,” he mentioned.
Corporations are definitely spending extra on particular person, staff and league sponsorships for feminine athletes, however salaries stay a fraction of these in males’s leagues as a result of the revenues will not be in the identical stratosphere. The NBA’s TV deal is roughly 100 occasions higher than the WNBA’s, which is mirrored in participant salaries.
Osaka and Williams cracked the highest 50 highest-paid athletes, however dig a bit deeper, and the fact is that they’d be the one two within the prime 1,000 highest-paid athletes. Biles made $6 million, and there have been 865 athletes within the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and Premier League mixed that made at the least that in wage alone, in accordance with Spotrac knowledge. Factoring in endorsements, together with all the different male athletes across the globe in different sports activities, would push Biles properly exterior the highest 1,000 general.
Take Ada Hegerberg. The Norwegian striker captured the primary Ballon d’Or Féminin in 2018, awarded to the perfect soccer participant on the planet. Her sponsors—Nike, Mastercard, Hublot and DAZN—push her off-field earnings into seven figures. Hegerberg performs within the prime girls’s league on the planet, in France, and kicks off her season this week for Olympique Lyon. Her new three-year contract is price roughly $600,000 a yr, probably the most for any feminine footballer, however a blip in comparison with the boys, with Lionel Messi, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo all incomes at least $70 million in wage and bonuses final season.
Methodology
Sportico’s estimates embody all earnings from prize cash, salaries, bonuses, endorsements, licensing, royalties, memorabilia, appearances, media and e-book offers between June 1, 2020, and Could 31, 2021. We didn’t think about funding revenue or deduct for taxes or agent charges. The highest 10 earned a mixed $127 million, together with $14 million in prize cash and salaries.
Highest-Paid Feminine Athletes
1. Naomi Osaka: $55.2 million
Prize cash: $5.2 million; Endorsements: $50 million
Talking out on social points was once a demise knell for athlete endorsements, however Osaka’s activism over the previous yr has elevated her model. She has two dozen endorsement companions, led by Nike, which pays her roughly $10 million a yr.
2. Serena Williams: $35.5 million
Prize cash: $1.5 million; Endorsements: $34 million
With Subway eating places turning into her newest endorsement companion, Williams stays a advertising and marketing juggernaut whilst she approaches her fortieth birthday subsequent month, regardless of her final Grand Slam title going down four-and-a-half years in the past. Her enterprise fund, Serena Ventures, has made greater than 50 investments.
3. Simone Biles: $6 million
Her 19 World Championship gold medals are greater than twice as many as some other feminine gymnast ever and made her a advertising and marketing star with 11 present endorsement companions, together with Athleta, Visa, United Airways, Uber Eats and Mondelez’s Oreo model. She is staging her personal post-Olympic Gold Over America Tour, protecting 35 cities through the fall.
4. Jin Younger Ko: $5.6 million
Prize cash: $2.1 million; Endorsements: $3.5 million
Ko received the prize cash title in 2019 and 2020, with final yr’s tally earned by solely 4 occasions. A pair of main wins in 2019 and the No. 1 world rating helped safe main endorsement offers with LG Electronics and Manila-based Solaire Resort & On line casino final yr.
5. Sei Younger Kim: $4.7 million
Prize cash: $1.7 million; Endorsements: $3 million
The 28-year-old was named LPGA Participant of the 12 months in 2020, and he or she holds the Tour’s all-time 72-hole occasion scoring report at 31-under. She signed a multi-year cope with Korean skincare model Mediheal this yr, selling the model on her attire and hat throughout occasions.
6. Garbiñe Muguruza: $4.5 million
Prize cash: $1 million; Endorsements: $3.5 million
The Spanish-Venezuelan tennis star just lately added offers with Jaguar and Nivea to a deep endorsement portfolio that additionally contains Adidas, Babolat, Beats, Caser insurance coverage and Maui Jim. She accomplished a three-month enterprise class at Harvard College this yr.
7. Alex Morgan: $4.3 million
Wage: $250,000; Endorsements: $4 million
The USWNT and Orlando Pleasure veteran has racked up the largest endorsement roster in girls’s soccer, with Nike, Coca-Cola, Luna, AT&T, Secret, Volkswagen and extra. This yr, she launched a brand new media and commerce firm for ladies referred to as Togethxr, which final week introduced plans for a documentary on WNBA star Breanna Stewart.
8. Megan Rapinoe: $4.1 million
Wage: $250,000; Endorsements: $3.8 million
The pink-haired captain of the USWNT is extremely sought-after within the market as a company speaker and has carved out a hybrid mannequin of conventional endorsements that usually have a consulting part as a result of she has a finger on the heartbeat of people who find themselves disenfranchised. Main partnerships embody Nike, BodyArmor, Subway, Victoria’s Secret, Schmidt’s deodorant, Cliff Bar and Symetra insurance coverage.
9. Mikaela Shiffrin: $3.9 million
Prize cash: $411,000; Endorsements: $3.5 million
Shiffrin has dominated the snow since she turned professional at age 15 in 2011. Her 69 World Cup wins, together with a report 17 in 2019, already rank second all-time behind Lindsey Vonn. Ski racing is massively widespread in Europe, and her dominance has attracted greater than a dozen private sponsors, like Adidas, Atomic, Barilla, Bose, Comcast, Land Rover, Oakley and Visa.
10. Inbee Park: $3.7 million
Prize cash: $1.7 million; Endorsements: $2 million
Park has constructed a Corridor of Fame resume in 15 years as a professional, with seven main titles, an Olympic gold medal and 4 stints because the No. 1 participant on the planet. Her $17.7 million in profession prize cash ranks fourth all-time.
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