With the end of the 2014 Winter Olympics having been celebrated yesterday, we turn our attention today to the subject of how much is spent every year paying athletes to endorse products. By its very nature, the endorsement of an athlete requires that the athlete be a superstar, at least within his or her own sport. Thus, it will come as no surprise that 70% of the earnings from athlete endorsements in 2013 were earned by the top 100 such spokesmen and women.

The top three earners included two golfers and a tennis player, in order; Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Phil Mickelson. Also of interest, only four women made the top 100 list, each is a tennis player. When the top one hundred athlete endorsement deals of 2013 are analyzed by sport, one sees that basketball has the largest number of players on the list and earns the largest total of the athletic endorsement pie (15%). A full breakdown by sport is provided in a detailed table on the source website, a link to which is provided below.

Today’s market size is the approximate value of all athlete endorsements, worldwide, in 2013. We give a tip of the hat to the Ghulf Genes blog for a link to the source of today’s market size.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2013
Market size: $1.1 billion
Source: “Top 100 Highest-Paid Athlete Endorsers 2013,” Opendorse, available online here.
Posted on February 24, 2014