Athletes at the top of the food chain are growing wealthier and wealthier, and opportunities are expanding for them to make money online.
Betsperts, a social media network for bettors, has put together a list of which athletes would earn the most for sponsored Instagram posts.
This is how it constructed the list. “We took:
- Sportico’s list of the highest-paid female athletes and highest paid athletes worldwide,
- NBC’s’ list of the highest-paid athletes worldwide,
- Statista’s list of the most followed athletes worldwide,
- Sport 360’s list of the top 100 influential female athletes for our initial seeding list.
“We then used Instagram to get an updated number of followers, before using In Beat to find the estimated earnings per Instagram post.”
The list:
- Cristiano Ronaldo, soccer, $4.7 million to $6.4 million per post
- Lionel Messi, soccer, $3.8 million to $5.1 million
- Vilat Kohli, Indian cricket player, $2 million to $2.7 million
- Neymar, soccer, $1.8 million to $2.4 million
- LeBron James, basketball, $1.2 million to $1.7 million
- Kylian Mbappe, soccer, $888,000 to $1.2 million
- David Beckham, soccer, $668,000 to $903,000.
- Karim Benzema, French soccer player, $568,000 to $768,000
- Marcelo, Brazilian soccer player, $531,000 to $718,000
- Paul Pogba, French soccer player, $492,000 to $666,000
Among the remaining 15 athletes in the top 25, 11 are soccer players. These numbers just reinforce the fact that soccer (or “football” as it’s called overseas) is the globe’s biggest game. Even a retired soccer player – Beckham – makes the roster.
Perhaps one day an American soccer player’s name will appear on the list. The only other American making the top 25 this time around is basketball star Steph Curry at No. 17, $422,000 to $571,000 per Instagram post.
The Forbes List
It’s interesting to compare that list to the 2022 Forbes list of the highest paid athletes. These numbers include on-field and off-field income over the 12 months through April 2022.
- Messi, $130 million
- James, $121 million
- Ronaldo, $115 million
- Neymar, $95 million
- Curry, $93 million
- Kevin Durrant, basketball, $92 million
- Roger Federer, tennis, $91 million
- Canelo Alvarez, boxing, $90 million
- Tom Brady, football, $84 million
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, basketball, $81 million.
Among the next five are two NFL football players, two NBA players and golfer Tiger Woods ($68 million).
Both James and Woods are billionaires, according to Forbes, as is NBA legend Michael Jordan.
The Top Women
The only women to make Forbes’ top 50 list, were tennis star Naomi Osaka, No. 19, with $59 million of income, and tennis legend Serena Williams, No. 31, with $45 million. Osaka is on break from the sport with a pregnancy, and Williams said she has retired.
Betsperts put together a list of women for Instagram earnings potential. Here’s the top 10.
- Ronda Rousey, mixed martial arts, $141,000 to $191,000 per post
- Williams, $139,000 to $188,000
- Sania Mirza, top Indian tennis player, $95,000 to $128,000
- Alex Morgan, soccer, $84,000 to $115,000
- Simone Biles, gymnastics, $58,000 to $79,000
- PV Sindhu, Indian badminton player, $32,000 to $43,000
- Osaka, $24,000 to $32,000
- Valentina Schevchenko, a Kyrgyzstani/Peruvian mixed martial arts fighter, $23,000 to $31,000
- Marta Vieira da Silva, Brazilian soccer player, $22,000 to $30,000
- Megan Rapinoe, soccer, $19,000 to $26,000
