These days it is hard to decipher between the worlds of sport and business. Gone are the days of jockeys or footy players competing at the top of their field for little more than respect, and to appease people who like to bet on games and races, because big business mentalities and structures have meant that even the most minor of sporting pursuits is turned into a business enterprise. This is often driven by sports governing bodies themselves, as well as by the sports teams and individuals who operate under their umbrella, all of which get used to being featured by online comparison websites that offer the best betting offers available. Here we deep dive into those sports that have become true business goliaths, often overtaking traditional industries and sectors when it comes to revenue and profit. These are the sports that have become massive global industries with serious financial clout and which betting tipsters predict will only continue to grow and grow.
Horse racing has always been a cash rich sport and that trend looks set to strengthen in the years ahead, as US audiences come round to the idea of having a flutter on the long noses
Horse Racing
Visit any of the major flats or jumps festivals that take place in the UK, Ireland, US or Australia, and it soon becomes apparent just how much money sloshes around in horse racing. Much of this is down to the fact that the rich and famous have always enjoyed having a flutter on the long noses, as well as investing in their very own training and breeding operations.
The betting industry is also inextricably tied to the sport, so there is never a shortage of advertising revenue kicking about, as sports betting firms do everything they can to be seen as the best providers of odds, whether they be found online or offline.
With much of the racing calendar able to continue apace despite outside events keeping crowds away, it has shown that it is one business sector that is practically bullet proof, meaning it is likely to flourish further still in 2022 and beyond. This will most certainly be the case in the US, where the lifting of restrictions on horse race betting and sports betting in general are likely to mean a major uptick for stateside racecourses and betting punters.
Football
Professional domestic leagues like the Premier League, La Liga, and the Bundesliga have become huge businesses in their own right, with some of their clubs being valued at well over a billion dollars. This growing financial clout has been shown in the form of rising transfer fees, as clubs do battle for the most talented players on the planet.
However, not everything is rosy in the football garden, as profits are sometimes being prioritised over what is best for loyal fans or indeed the game as a whole. This was most recently the case when some of Europe’s top clubs attempted to break away and for the European Super League, which would have seen them try to ringfence television rights revenue and cut off the trickle-down effect that currently keeps many lower league clubs in business. Such are the teething pains of a sport that has become accustomed to huge sums of money swimming about its coffers.
Aside from the club aspect of the beautiful game, there is international football, whose governing bodies like UEFA and FIFA have been embroiled in a number of negative news stories. This has culminated in the World Cup being taken to Qatar this summer, a country whose climate barely allows for football to be played outside of air conditioning and whose stadiums were built using some questionable labour practices.
There can be no doubting the financial muscle that many football clubs and international organisations wield, but they would be wise to rein in the greed that is proliferating throughout the game, or else risk damaging the integrity of the sport in the long run.
The beautiful game is perhaps reaching its financial ceiling, as major clubs look to break free of the traditional football pyramid to the detriment of the wider game
UFC
The UFC is technically not a sport in of itself, but such is the dominance of Dana White’s UFC franchise, that MMA is now synonymous with the UFC brand. White’s managerial style and the amount he pays his fighters is under constant scrutiny, but he has managed the seemingly impossible task of creating a sports league, in just a few years, that now rivals far more established American mainstays like the NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB.
The UFC supremo now has his sights set on other combat sports like boxing, and few would bet against him making a major impact if and when he decides to venture into the shady world of pugilism. In the meantime, the UFC just looks to go from strength to strength and was recently valued at around the $10 billion mark.
Tennis
Some sports have always been synonymous with wealth, and one of those is tennis, whose exorbitant price-to-access makes it a sport that is famously difficult to break into for those players and coaches who do not have money to burn. The cash rich fan base that the sport attracts makes it incredibly appealing to sponsors and advertisers, meaning that Grand Slam winners like the UK’s Emma Raducanu can go from making very little on tour, to suddenly becoming overnight millionaires.
Another sign that tennis’ finances are in rude health are that it recently ensured prize money received by male and female players was equal, meaning that in overall terms the prize money being doled out on the ATP and WTA Tours has never been higher.
Golf
Golf is the sport of choice for bank managers all over the world, so it makes sense that its greens and fairways are awash with the sort of funding that makes other sports sick to the stomach with envy. Such are the amounts of money at stake in golf, that there is now a power struggle between the newly formed Asian Tour, and the well-established PGA and DP Tours. The battle for supremacy could well see even more money pumped into both the men’s and women’s games before the decade is out.
