In this piece, we will take a look at the top 20 richest football leagues in the world. If you want to skip our analysis of the sports industry, head on over to Top 5 Richest Football Leagues in the World.
Sports is one of the most valuable industries in the world. The tribal tendency of humans to divide themselves into groups and then compete for resources has led to the modern day release valve of sports fans who will support their teams to the very end and often act out aggressively against rivals – forgetting that it’s all for fun.
This has also lent the global sports industry a value of hundreds of billions of dollars. Taking a look at football or soccer, the biggest clubs in the world generate billions of dollars in revenue. In fact, according to research from Deloitte, its top twenty money league football clubs generated $9.6 billion in revenue in 2020 leading to an average revenue of $491 million per club. The biggest contributor to the revenue pie was the Spanish soccer giant Real Madrid which had raked in $860 million in revenue. These sales came at a time when the world was reeling from the worst shock of the coronavirus pandemic, as social distancing measures had forced stadiums to operate below optimal capacity, with Deloitte forecasting at the time that the biggest football clubs would lose $2.43 billion in revenue during the 2020-2021 season.
Taking a broader look at the global sports industry, research from Research and Markets attempts to take a look at its value. The research firm believes that the industry was worth $486 billion last year and will sit at $512 billion by the end of 2023. From then until 2027, the industry is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% to be worth $623 billion by the end of the forecast period. It adds that North America was the largest sports market in 2022, and as a whole, spectator sports account for the largest market share.
Speaking of North America, some of the world’s largest sports leagues by revenue are in the United States. America’s stature as the world’s premier capitalist economy – with also the largest gross domestic product (GDP) – has also enabled it to dominate the top spots in the list of the world’s biggest sports leagues by revenue. At the top of the revenue food chain is the National Football League (NFL), whose latest revenue sits at a cool $19 billion. As if this weren’t enough, the NFL aims to grow this to at least $25 by 2027. After the NFL, the world’s second biggest sports league in terms of revenue is Major League Baseball (MLB), which raked in $10.8 billion in 2022.
Moving over to Europe, it has some of the most expensive and popular sports leagues in the world. According to the latest research from Deloitte, the biggest European football club in revenue terms is Manchester City, whose latest sales estimate is €731 million. Compare this to the estimates we shared at the start of this post and you’ll see that the European leagues are still struggling to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, Real Madrid, which comes in at second place, has a revenue of €713.8 million ($780 million); still down from the previous figure. But what if you were to attempt to buy a European football league? Well, you’d have to buy all the teams in it, and the most expensive football league would be the English Premier League which is currently worth €10.59 billion. Yet, even this fade away in the presence of the NFL, whose value is estimated to sit at the north of a hundred billion dollars.
But what about growth? After all, the biggest often don’t grow the fastest particularly due to a higher base effect. Well, in terms of growth, the fastest growing sports league in the world is the Indian Premier League (IPL). This data comes courtesy of Forbes, whose annualized growth rate for the cricket league sits at 24% since 2009. This is more than twice the NFL’s 10% and higher than the NBA’s 13% for the same time period.
As to whether the clouds of the pandemic are finally behind us, here’s what executives of Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:MSGE) shared during the firm’s second quarter of fiscal 2023 earnings conference:
In total, we hosted over 380 events and more than 2.3 million guests across our performance venues this quarter. That included another busy schedule of concerts, as demand from both artists and fans alike remains robust. In fact, once again the majority of concerts held at our venues were sold out. We were also pleased to welcome back the Knicks and Rangers to the Garden, this past quarter for the start of their 2022 2023 regular seasons. As we look ahead to the second half of fiscal 2023, our calendar continues to fill up, as we head towards completing our first full year of bookings since before the pandemic. Turning to productions. Last month, the Christmas Spectacular, successfully completed its 89th season and the show’s first full run in three years and the results clearly, demonstrate the enduring popularity of this beloved holiday tradition.
This season, we sold over 930,000 tickets across 181 performances and achieved revenues of more than $130 million. Average per show revenue was up double-digit percentages versus both fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2020, which was the last holiday season unaffected by the pandemic and total revenue exceeded fiscal 2020 levels despite 18 fewer performances. These results also benefited from improving tourism, as New York City continues to make its way back following the pandemic. We were pleased to see the number of individual tickets sold to tourists, as well as group sales, a heavily tourist-driven category, both increased over 50% on a per show basis, year-over-year. We have also seen corporate demand remain strong across our business. Following a slate of successful renewals and new partnership announcements earlier this year, our marketing partnerships business remains on a path to exceed results for fiscal 2019, our last full year before the pandemic.
With these details in mind, let’s take a look at richest football leagues in the world.
Pixabay/Public Domain
Our Methodology
To compile our list of the wealthiest football leagues in the world, we first made a list of 30 biggest leagues in terms of revenue. Then, the combined value of all the teams in the leagues was determined through data from Transfermarkt. The leagues were ranked according to this value since their teams are their biggest assets. The richest football leagues in the world are as follows.
Top 20 Richest Football Leagues in the World
20. Saudi Pro League
Latest Value Estimate: €321 million
The Saudi Pro League is the top football/soccer league of Saudi Arabia. Its most valuable player is none other than Christiano Ronaldo, who made headlines earlier when he joined the league for a whopping annual salary of $213 million. Its most valuable team is Al Nassr FC, which has also hired Ronaldo.
19. Scottish Premiership
Latest Value Estimate: €351 million
The Scottish Premiership is Scotland’s premier men’s football league. Its top two teams, Rangers FC and Celtic FC account for more than half of its value, and Rangers FC is the most valuable team with a value of $124 million.
18. 2. Bundesliga
Latest Value Estimate: €375 million
2. Bundesliga, as the name suggests, is the second division football league of Germany. Its most valuable team is Hamburger SV, which is worth €37.65 million.
17. Ligue 2
Latest Value Estimate: €412 million
Ligue 2 is the second division football league of France. It is primarily sponsored by the Indian tire making company Balkrishna Industries. The most valuable team is AS Saint-Étiennea which is worth €44 million.
16. Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División
Latest Value Estimate: €494 million
The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, or simply LaLiga 2, is Spain’s second division football league. Real Murcia has won the most titles among the 22 teams that make up the league.
15. Serie B
Latest Value Estimate: €502 million
The Serie B is Italy’s second division league, and like the Ligue 2, it is also sponsored by Balkrishna Industries. Its most valuable team is Genoa CFC, which is worth €55 million.
14. Liga BBVA MX
Latest Value Estimate: €801 million
The Liga BBVA MX is Mexico’s premier football league. Its most valuable team is CF America, which is worth €76 million. There are 18 teams in the league.
13. Russian Premier League
Latest Value Estimate: €813 million
The Russian Premier League, as the name suggests, is the top football league of the Russian Federation. It has sixteen teams and the most valuable is Zenit St. Petersburg which is worth €170 million.
12. Liga Profesional de Fútbol
Latest Value Estimate: €825 million
The Liga Profesional de Fútbol is the top league in the Argentinian football system. CA River Plate is its most valuable club, worth 93 million. The club also holds the record for the most titles.
11. Jupiler Pro League
Latest Value Estimate: €907 million
The Jupiler Pro League is Belgium’s top football league and is sponsored by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (NYSE:BUD)’s Jupiler beer brand.
10. Spor Toto Süper Lig
Latest Value Estimate: €952 million
The Spor Toto Süper Lig is Turkey’s premier football league. It has 19 teams, out of which the most valuable is Galatasaray since it is worth €181 million.
9. Eredivisie
Latest Value Estimate: €1.12 billion
Marking the entry into the billion dollar club of football leagues is Eredivisie – the Netherlands’s top football league.
8. Major League Soccer
Latest Value Estimate: €1.18 billion
Major League Soccer, or MLS, is America’s top soccer league, which rose to fame for signing football legend David Beckham.
7. English Football League Championship
Latest Value Estimate: €1.23 billion
The English Football League Championship, or the Championship, is the premier league of the English Football League.
6. Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
Latest Value Estimate: €1.41 billion
The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A is Brazil’s top football league. It has two top most valuable teams, the CR Flamengo and the Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras, each worth $154.15 million.
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Disclosure: None. Top 20 Richest Football Leagues in the World is originally published on Insider Monkey.