Professional sports generate massive amounts of revenue all over the world, but the popular leagues are not all created equal. If you have caught yourself wondering which of the leagues you watch generate the most cash, here are the top ten most profitable sports leagues in the world.
#10 – UEFA Champions League (Europe)
UEFA stands for Union of European Football Associations, and their Champions League is one of the many competitions that bring European soccer teams head-to-head around the country. This yearly competition sees 32 soccer teams competing, and it generates an estimated $2 billion in revenue every year.
#9 – Series A (Italy)
Series A is an Italian football league that is hugely popular throughout Europe. Some of its popularity is due to the large number of world-renowned players who play for teams in the country. This league generates an estimated $2.3 billion in revenue every year.
#8 – Bundesliga (Germany)
The Bundesliga is Germany’s national soccer league, and it is one of the biggest on the continent. Back in 2019, the German league reported $4.33 billion in revenue.
#7 – La Liga Santander (Spain)
We’ve seen Italy and Germany, and now it’s Spain’s turn. The La Liga Santander is their national sports league, and it reported $4.5 billion in revenue back in 2018. The popularity of the league is helped by the fact that the country is the home to two of the biggest soccer teams in the world: Real Madrid and Barcelona.
#6 – National Hockey League (United States)
Though hockey is not the first sport that comes to mind when people talk about the United States, the sport is still massively popular in the country. Back in 2019, the NHL reported it had made over $5 billion in revenue, and it holds the honor of being the biggest hockey league in the world.
#5 – English Premier League (England)
The global popularity of the Premier League leads to the event generating massive amounts of money in advertisement revenue. The league frequently reports earnings of over $4 billion, with the latest reports estimating earnings of $5.3 billion for the league’s 2017 season.
That’s still only a third of what the top #1 league on this list generates. But it’s still more than enough money to make sure players in this league won’t need to worry about their credit scores or their mortgages. Although according to this resource from 1st UK, a bad credit score isn’t the end of the world for your financial life.
#4 – Indian Premier League (India)
The IPL earns an estimated $7 billion every year, even though the league is composed of just 8 teams that only play for two months a year. And what sport do they play? Cricket. That may sound odd at first, but when you consider that India has a population of over 1 billion people and cricket is the most popular sport in the country, it all starts to make sense.
#3 – National Basketball Association (United States)
The NBA earns an estimated $8 billion in revenue every year. It is also home to some of the most well-paid athletes in the world, with multimillion-dollar contracts being common among top players.
#2 – Major League Baseball (United States)
The MLB generates around $10 billion in yearly revenue. Of the world’s 50 most valuable sports teams, 6 belong to this league.
#1 – National Football Team (NFL)
At $16 billion in revenue, the NFL is just a couple of billion dollars short of being worth more than all the soccer entries in this list combined. A fact that is made even more impressive when you consider that the NFL isn’t all that popular outside of the US and Canada. But despite that limited appeal, the league has managed to create the richest teams and players in the world.
