Beyond the Contract: How Today’s Elite Athletes Are Building Billion-Dollar Business Empires
Top athletes do not have power that only extends to the insides of sports arenas and stadiums. They are people who are able to capture the attention of millions, if not billions, due to their special talents and the cult of personality they have built. Hence, their reach stretches out beyond their field of expertise, into mainstream culture, and these are individuals with whom many have an emotional connection, even though they have no personal relationship with them. This gives them the power to influence fans and global markets on account of the recognizability they bring to the table and what people associate with them. Things like success, flair, aptitude, money, and so on.
In the past, athletes’ money-making potential outside their sphere primarily leaned on them getting endorsement deals. They would attain a certain level of accomplishment in their sport, which would make them identifiable to the masses, and this would make drink, apparel, vehicle companies, and the like want to use their likeness to sell their products. Such endorsement partnerships have been most lucrative for many, with Michael Jordan reportedly making $1.5 billion from his contract with Nike, and Roger Federer making $300 million over ten years from retailer Uniqlo.
However, when one looks at today’s richest NFL stars, those from the NBA, top European football leagues, and so on, it is clear that many of them have primarily built their non-sporting-accumulated wealth through business ventures of their own. That is what we are examining in more detail below. How did these individuals manage to leverage their celebrity to build business empires?
The Media Mogul Approach
Famous athletes are used to being in the spotlight and dealing with the media. Hence, it makes sense for them to branch out into this field. Though some consider it an audacious move because it departs from an athlete’s core competency in a dramatic way, in most cases. For example, one of the best basketball players of all time, LeBron James, in 2020, opened the SpringHill Company, which is a production company focused on marketing and athlete-driven entertainment. It merged with Fulwell 73, a UK-based entity, in 2024 and was responsible for the development of projects like Hustle, The Shop, and the new Space Jam movie.
With SpringHill, James turned himself into a media executive, one looking to amplify marginalized voices and create opportunities for James to expand his brand. His celebrity has no doubt been used as a marketing tool in the rise of this company, and his net worth derives substantially from his ownership interests in various entities, as well as this endeavor.
Others who have successfully experimented with this approach are Golden State’s Stephen Curry, who founded Unanimous Media, which develops fictional and non-fictional media content and which has partnered with the likes of Sony and Disney. Kobe Bryant, whose Granity Studios specialized in multimedia content, Tom Brady’s 199 Productions, which looks to produce TV content, podcasts, and films, and Travis & Jason Kelce’s New Heights Productions, which mainly centered around the New Heights podcast.
Sports’ Venture Capitalists
A venture capitalist is someone who invests in small companies, usually young ones that show growth potential. Unlike stock investors who buy publicly traded assets to get a piece of business entities, venture capitalists invest in private ones. As noted, most often ones that get classified as startups.
In general, the venture capital game is considered a high-risk, high-reward venture, as many up-and-coming entities fail, and investors take financial baths. There are a few Uber- and Airbnb-type stories.
Serena Williams is maybe the most prominent athlete venture capital investor, as she has put money towards dozens of early-stage entities, chiefly ones that operate in the financial services, technology, entertainment, education, and consumer product domains. Some of her more notable moves include helping build the online platform MasterClass, the cryptocurrency portfolio tracking company CoinTracker, and Lolli, a Bitcoin rewards platform.
NBA superstar Kevin Durant, via his 35 Ventures, has deployed capital in more than a hundred startups, with his biggest success being Postmates, a food delivery company that got acquired by Uber for $2.65 billion in 2020. Durant was also one of Coinbase’s investors, and he helped WHOOP, the wearable fitness platform, get off the ground.
Alex Rodriguez, Andre Iguodala, Russell Westbrook, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Kobe Bryant are a few more that, over the years, have been highlighted as principals in investment firms that look to evaluate small companies with big ideas.
Lifestyle Architects
This fancy term is reserved for those who intentionally look to build a particular way of living. They usually do this by promoting luxury, wellness, or personal development. In many ways, the concept of a luxury architect relates closely to branding. Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo is probably the most renowned sports star out there. He is the most followed person on Instagram, so it would make sense that various entities would pay him to advertise them, promoting them as something premium. That is why his name and image are plastered all over fragrances, hotels, gyms, etc., and on their social media profiles. His CR7 brand is massive and operates as a lifestyle ecosystem that generates millions in licensing agreements and partnerships annually. Even now, when Cristiano has no longer been a player in Europe for years, he is ranked as the world’s highest-paid athlete, by far.
Lionel Messi, his biggest on-pitch competitor, has pursued a related but more focused strategy. He is not as exposed and not as associated with luxury brands. His Adidas partnership is fundamental, and he expands his brand through selective ownership stakes in varying fields.
In reality, David Beckham is more comparable to Ronaldo in this area than Messi, as he has also been associated with style, elegance, and luxury, and his image has been used to sell clothing, eyewear, grooming products, and the like, making him very rich in the process.
Tiger Woods has cultivated a brand that represents precision and professionalism, and has done well in this space, as have Serena Williams and Michael Jordan.