Top 20 most lucrative prizes in sport according to OLBG
After tracking down details on the prize pots and winnings for the other big earning competitions in other sports, OLBG were able to rank these tournaments into a top 20, with the FedEx Cup’s winning prize worth more than every competition outside of the top five combined.
That means that the winner of the FedEx Cup secures a bigger windfall than the prizes that are available for individuals winning the Champions League, European Championship, Europa League, Indian Premier League, NBA Championship, Stanley Cup, Super Bowl, World Series and the World Cups in cricket, football and rugby union – and all the four tennis majors too.
If a tennis player were to have secured all four majors this year, they would have won £9,140,000, still £10,060,000 short of what’s in play at the FedEx Cup.
A football player who was somehow able to win the Champions League, European Championship, Europa League and World Cup would stand to collect around £6,635,892, extending the gap to what’s on offer in golf’s most lucrative tournament to £12,564,108.
Let’s say North America sees the emergence of a sporting renaissance man able to somehow compete and win across all their major sports. An athlete who won the MLB World Series, NBA Championship, NFL Super Bowl and NHL’s Stanley Cup would bring home an estimated £1,311,482 from winnings alone.
That’s £17,888,518 below what is on offer in the FedEx Cup, although of course such an athlete would be one of the most famous faces on the planet and earning many times that amount through endorsements and other commercial partnerships.
Of course, this is also the case with other sports where the outlier superstars will earn more than these estimations due to the nature of their own celebrity and status as stand out players on bigger contracts that include various incentives to win big and earn big too.
Yet bringing it back to the prize money on offer merely for winning a competition, the FedEx Cup is the most lucrative tournament in all of sport unless you’re willing to put your body and life on the line in a boxing ring or a racing car going over 230mph, with all the risks that entails.