Five Fast Facts

With global sports sponsorship spend levels at the $44bn mark today’s Five Facts explore where this money may be going… 

• The top 100 highest-paid athletes come from 21 different countries, compete in 11 different sports and earn a total of $3.11 billion. 29% of which is from endorsements or appearances
• Serena Williams is the highest-paid female, netting $27 million from prize money and endorsements last year – double the amount of all female rivals
• Cristiano Ronaldo out-performs Serena three-fold having earned $93 million last year, in fact Serena’s income doesn’t even see her make the top 25
• North America remains the world’s largest sports sponsorship market, capturing c.37% of spending this year but keep an eye on the Asia-Pacific market which is growing fastest at 5.8% pa
• The most valuable sports brands are currently Nike ($27 billion), ESPN ($16.5 billion) and Adidas ($7 billion) – but the latest figures are due from Forbes shortly so keep an eye out for this changing

If you would like to share any sponsorship stats of your own, please comment below.

If you are interested in entering this year’s Most Innovative Sponsorship category in the Sports Technology Awards, enter here.