With online gambling now legal in 25 states, the 2021 NCAA tournament will be a slam dunk for gaming sites—and the friendly office pool may never rebound.



By Will Yakowicz, Forbes Staff



Bob, a 34-year-old gambler from Illinois who works in logistics, has bet in his office <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jayginsbach/2021/03/15/countdown-to-2021-ncaa-tournament-no-1-seeds-most-popular-bets-led-by-gonzaga-michigan-and-illinois/?sh=59dc48775038">March Madness</a> pool for the last five years. With about 75 colleagues and a $25 buy-in, the pot will be just under $2,000 for this year’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2021/03/17/will-march-madness-2021-be-shamateurisms-last-dance/?sh=7e1d5009368a">NCAA men’s basketball tournament</a>—but he’s not filling out a bracket. 



For gamblers, the office pool has lost its luster. “It’s boring—I’d rather gamble other ways,” says Bob, who did not want to give his last name. “For Betty Sue, who runs the front desk, does she like the office bracket? Of course, she does; she’s not a gambler.”



March Madness is always&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2020/10/30/bettors-have-wagered-more-money-on-trump-vs-biden-than-nevada-collected-during-super-bowl-liv/?sh=75ede2e45ae3">big action</a>&nbsp;for Bob, who says he lays out about 25% of his annual $20,000 bankroll during the three-week long, a single-elimination, seven-round college basketball tournament. This year, he’s placing bets on mobile betting services like DraftKings and Barstool Sports. Bob will also wager with his go-to bookie, a longstanding relationship he has decided to keep despite his access to legal options.&nbsp;



He is not alone. According to a <a href="https://www.americangaming.org/resources/2021-march-madness-wagering-estimates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a> published by the American Gaming Association this week, the number of Americans—36.7 million—filling out a bracket is down 8% compared to the last NCAA Tournament in 2019. (March Madness was cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak.) About 31 million Americans are placing more traditional bets on this year’s tournament, up from nearly 18 million in 2019. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Brackets bring in about $2 million,” says DraftKing’s Johnny Avello. “I can’t tell you what March Madness will bring, but it will be&nbsp;exponentially&nbsp;bigger.”</blockquote>



Bill Miller, the president and CEO of the American Gaming Association says that the number of people betting online this year is up more than 200% from 2019. About 18 million people will bet online while 8 million will bet in-person at a sportsbook. Miller says the dramatic increase in online betting is thanks to the fact that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.americangaming.org/research/state-gaming-map/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">13 new legal sports betting markets</a>&nbsp;have opened up since the 2019 tournament, bringing the total to 25 states (and Washington, D.C. ) that have legalized sports betting, with 21 markets operational. By population, 45% of American adults now live in a state with legalized sports betting.&nbsp;



“We have seen a massive increase in legal sports betting,” says Miller. “States recognized that people have been betting on sports since there’s been sports to bet on.”&nbsp;



“There is a migration from the illegal market to the legal market,” he continues, “and there is excitement and pent up demand for March Madness and the opportunity for people to bet legally and safely has never been better.”



While the number of Americans placing bets this year—47 million—is expected to stay flat from 2019, wagers are expected to break the 2019 record of $8.5 billion. 



At DraftKings, the proliferation of online sports gambling&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2021/03/10/soaring-draftkings-stock-makes-ceo-jason-robins-a-billionaire/?sh=22faa08611f9">made company cofounder and CEO Jason Robins a billionaire</a>&nbsp;earlier this year. DraftKings, which was founded in 2012, has been on a tear since the company went&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2020/05/18/soaring-draftkings-stock-makes-israeli-entrepreneur-a-billionaire/?sh=2ae4cddb37c9">public through a reverse merger</a>&nbsp;last April—its stock price jumped has 260%. The company recently reported impressive $322 million in revenue, a 146% increase from $131 million in the prior year, and also reported that monthly users have risen by 500,000 to 1.5 million from the previous quarter.&nbsp;



March Madness should only add to that winning streak.



“It will be the biggest ever,” says Johnny Avello, DraftKings’ head of race and sportsbook. “We sorely missed the tournament last year. We saw intense action when we put the lines up on Sunday. But forget the fact that we missed the tournament last year, the growth from 2019 to 2021 in sports betting across the U.S. has increased dramatically. There are more users, more states on board, and more offerings.”



To keep with tradition, DraftKings is offering brackets. About 20,000 people will pay $100 to enter and the winner will get $1 million. DraftKings is also hosting free-to-play survivor pools in all states, including jurisdictions where sports betting is not legal, with a $1 million first prize.&nbsp;



But Avello says these contests are peanuts compared with more traditional betting, player proposition bets, and in-game wagering. “Brackets bring in about $2 million. I can’t tell you what March Madness will bring, but it will be&nbsp;exponentially&nbsp;bigger,” says Avello. “It’s the biggest event of the year, bigger than the Super Bowl.”&nbsp;



John Murray, director of the Westgate sports book in Las Vegas, is equally optimistic. He says all signs point to the fact that sports betting, and March Madness, has roared back to life this year.&nbsp;



“We set a handle record in January and in February—the highest handles we’ve ever had twice just this year,” says Murray. “I see no reason at all that we won’t have a huge March Madness.”



Murray says the spike in business is due to mobile betting. About 80% of the Westgate’s business is from wagers made on a smartphone. “The mobile phone is the answer,” says Murray.&nbsp;



The crowd at the Westgate is not back to pre-pandemic levels, mostly due to Covid-related capacity restrictions, but the sportsbook’s volume has already surpassed 2019. “Handle-wise, we’ve already exceeded pre-pandemic levels,” says Murray. “We’re already there—I’m confident this weekend will be huge.”



Miller of the American Gaming Association also sees the rebound in the number of people betting on sports as a lucky sign. “I think March Madness is an important indicator that the post-pandemic world is coming back to a good place,” he says. “March Madness, the opening of spring training in baseball, Opening Day around the corner, these are indicators that the economy and the American psyche are moving forward. March Madness is a signal that life is returning to normal.”&nbsp;

Three men in a betting shop

March Madness Gamblers Expected To Break $8.5 Billion Record Thanks To Mobile Sports Betting

An amateur ice hockey game in Florida might have fueled a small Covid-19 outbreak in June, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6941a4.htm?s_cid=mm6941a4_w" target="_blank">study released Thursday</a> that represents one of the first formally documented cases of the coronavirus spreading through sports, raising new questions as U.S. sports leagues press forward with their seasons.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h4>



A Tampa man reported coronavirus symptoms the day after he participated in the hockey game, meaning he likely caught the virus before the game, the CDC study found.



Five days later, at least 14 other people at the indoor rink had either tested positive for the virus or showed symptoms: eight of the man’s 11 teammates, five people on the opposing team, and one rink staff member — all 15 people later recovered from the virus.



The 22 players did not wear face masks while on the ice or in locker rooms.



The study is one of the first to research Covid-19 at sporting events, though&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aspenprojectplay.org/parent-mailbag/posts/2020/7/21/is-there-evidence-of-covid-19-outbreaks-due-to-youth-sports" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">scattered reports</a>&nbsp;have emerged nationwide: dozens of people tested positive after a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/coronavirus/article244347427.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">July football game</a>&nbsp;in Kentucky, and 52 cases were reported after an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.startribune.com/covid-19-risk-lurks-as-mshsl-considers-restart-of-prep-football-volleyball/572465751/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Iowa baseball tournament</a>.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



After states loosened their social distancing rules over the summer, many&nbsp;<a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30108928/nfl-chief-medical-officer-dr-allen-sills-shifting-bubble-environment" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">professional</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/26/us/college-football-conferences-covid-19-schedule-spt-trnd/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">amateur</a>&nbsp;sports leagues eagerly resumed play. Despite the extra precautions most leagues have added,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sports-restart-has-a-plan-for-everythingexcept-a-coronavirus-outbreak-11593604800" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">experts</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/playing-sports.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CDC officials</a>&nbsp;warned that athletes can still transmit the virus, especially in sports like football and hockey where close contact with teammates and competitors is almost impossible to avoid. But Thursday’s CDC study is&nbsp;<a href="https://news.yahoo.com/how-a-florida-hockey-game-became-a-covid-19-superspreader-event-170046699.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">among the only</a>&nbsp;formal looks into whether sports games can become superspreader events.&nbsp;



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h4>



Several NFL teams have reported coronavirus cases in recent weeks, forcing the league to postpone some games. The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tennessean.com/in-depth/sports/nfl/titans/2020/10/12/titans-covid-19-timeline-first-positive-test-second-postponement/5924320002/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tennessee Titans</a>&nbsp;are the hardest-hit team, with around two dozen infected players and staff. There is little evidence of any players catching the virus from an opposing team, but&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/nfl-s-covid-outbreak-postpones-patriots-chiefs-it-could-be-ncna1242149" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">some observers worry</a>&nbsp;that wider outbreaks within individual teams will become hard to avoid as players and coaches continue to traverse the country.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">SECTION TITLE</h4>



<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sports-restart-has-a-plan-for-everythingexcept-a-coronavirus-outbreak-11593604800" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Sports Restart Has a Plan for Everything—Except a Coronavirus Outbreak (Wall Street Journal)</a>



<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.startribune.com/covid-19-risk-lurks-as-mshsl-considers-restart-of-prep-football-volleyball/572465751/" target="_blank">Sports cause outbreaks. Restart sports anyway? (Minneapolis Star Tribune)</a>



-By Joe Walsh, Forbes Staff

Lausanne HC v HC Davos – Ice Hockey National League

Sporting Events Can Spark Covid Outbreaks, CDC Finds

When Dave Oancea isn’t earning millions flipping rare cards (or spending it on Birkin bags), he’s selling suckers pricey betting picks. Too bad it’s a losing proposition.



During the early morning hours of August 23, Dave Oancea made sports memorabilia history when he sold a one-of-a-kind signed Mike Trout rookie card for<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://goldinauctions.com/2009_Bowman_Chrome_Draft_Prospects__BDPP89_Mike_Tr-LOT63942.aspx" target="_blank"> $3.9 million</a> during an online auction. In addition to the records the Los Angeles Angels center fielder holds on the diamond, he’s now the most expensive trading card ever sold, topping a 1909 T206<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://goldinauctions.com/LotDetail.aspx?inventoryid=25398" target="_blank"> Honus Wagner</a>, which went for $3.1 million in 2016.



“When I bought this card, everyone said I was crazy for spending almost half a million on a piece of cardboard,” says the 43-year-old Oancea, who claims he bought the 2009 Trout, a “superfractor” made by Topps’ Bowman collection, from a Taiwanese collector he met on eBay in 2018 for $400,000. “I relate it to art—like the Mona Lisa, or a Picasso. There’s only one in the world.”



Oancea is not your typical memorabilia collector. Vegas Dave, as he’s known to his millions of followers on social media, is a notorious gambling influencer, known for selling picks on which team will win a given game. Vegas Dave says he’s the best “sports information consultant” in the world, but if you dig into his past and his picks you’ll find a shady hustler who sells a service that has little, if any, value for his customers.



He became well-known in the sports gambling circuit in 2015 after collecting $2.5 million on a futures bet that the Kansas City Royals would win the World Series that year. In February 2016, he also won a $2.3 million payout when the Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50.



Despite holding the winning ticket for the Super Bowl, he couldn’t collect the full amount because the federal government was investigating him at the time. The following year, Oancea was indicted on 19 felonies related to his longstanding habit of using other people’s Social Security numbers to place wagers. In 2019, Oancea, who was represented by the well-known Vegas criminal defense attorney David Chesnoff, accepted a plea bargain. Instead of being convicted of nearly twenty felonies, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, forfeited half a million dollars, and was banned from Las Vegas sportsbooks for three years.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">Oancea refuses to give details about his win-loss percentage. “I’ve bet over 1,000 times,” he says. “I don’t have a record.”</blockquote>



Those legal troubles led Vegas Dave to press his luck in the lucrative world of memorabilia. “When they banned me,” Oancea says, “my vision was clear: sports cards.”



The $3.9 million Trout card was not Oancea’s first newsworthy sale. In May, he sold a less-rare Trout card (only five in the world) for $922,000. He owns seven other rare Trouts. But one of Oancea’s sports cards sales that has gotten little attention came in 2017. Oancea sold a collector what appeared to be a mint condition 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card for $18,000. When the buyer brought the MJ card to the 2017 National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago, the grading firm PSA determined it to be counterfeit. Oancea told the buyer he didn’t know it was a fake and refused to give a refund. When asked about the sale via email, Oancea did not respond.



The five-foot-four Oancea prides himself on his foresight, a talent he claims to have used to win millions betting on sports. Other times, he’s lost it all: In 2002 he filed for bankruptcy protection; in 2010 his home was foreclosed upon; and his parents have covered hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of his losses. During his federal case, Oancea admitted he was addicted to gambling and lost all he made over a five- to eight-year period. As for his reputation across the professional gambling circuit, Oancea is viewed as a “parasite” and “black eye” on the industry, say former customers, fellow sports gamblers and a Las Vegas sportsbook employee.&nbsp;



Those who follow his social media posts and buy his picks will find a world of braggadocio and shoddy math. Every day, via Instagram live streams, Oancea entices gamblers to buy his advice with directions on how to place straight bets and multi-bet parlays—ranging from a $199 “daily card” to a big $995 “game of the week.” Return customers receive a daily barrage of emails tempting them to upgrade to more expensive packages.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



All of his picks are a sure thing, Vegas Dave says with relentless hucksterism, claiming some of his packages have an 85% chance of winning and can help bettors make an “extra” $100,000 to $600,000.



For anyone who understands betting on sports, however, a winning percentage of 85% is laughable. As a point of reference, Billy Walters, perhaps the most successful sports gambler in America before retiring (after being convicted on insider trading in 2017), won about 57% of the time.



Oancea refuses to give details about his win-loss percentage. “I’ve bet over 1,000 times; I don’t have a record,” he says via video chat while wearing a black diamond necklace, an iced-out Richard Mille watch, and mesh shorts. Last year, Oancea was featured in Showtime’s sports gambling documentary&nbsp;Action&nbsp;in which he lost a series of three bets for his customers, including a wager on the Los Angeles Rams against the New England Patriots during Super Bowl LIII.&nbsp;



When pressed on his performance, Oancea quickly changes the topic to his sports tout business, which he expected to net him over $2 million in August. “Will I lose?” he asks. “I lose once a week. I’m human.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Oancea, who has 2 million followers on Instagram, is often the first stop for first-time sports gamblers who get sucked in by his promise of easy money.&nbsp;“I was an amateur sports bettor, so I believed everything he fed us,” says Ajay, a gambler who lives in California, and used to buy picks from Oancea.&nbsp;“It was extremely disappointing losing day after day.” Other former customers, including an Arizona man who goes by “Dubb,” describe Oancea more succinctly: “He’s a fraud.” In 2017, Dubb bought a $1,100 NFL package but his bankroll ran out eight weeks into the 17-week season.



If you watch enough of Vegas Dave’s videos, it’s clear that he preys on newbie sports gamblers, often with condescending and sexist pitches. “If you want to jump on the money train, I can help you,” Oancea said during one live stream in July. “I don’t care if you don’t speak English, I don’t care if you’re a female, I don’t care if you don’t watch sports.” His style is part carnival barker and a foul-mouthed version of CNBC’s Jim Cramer. In another video, he pledged that his picks will help you “flip hundreds into thousands.”



But Vegas Dave’s math doesn’t work out if you pay for his picks. In order to break even in the long run, you must win 52.38% of the time against the standard -110 line to account for the vigorish (or percentage) the sportsbook takes. But if you’re paying at least $200 for that advice, you have already eaten into your profits before considering the vig on each bet.



On Sunday, August 30, I bought Oancea’s MLB daily card. In a video that morning, Oancea gave buyers a guarantee—if less than five parlays hit, the next day’s picks would be free.The first pick was a money line bet on the Minnesota Twins, who were favored to beat the Detroit Tigers. Oancea suggested a wager to win 35 units. (A unit in Oancea’s calculation is .25% of your bankroll, or $25, assuming you start with a $10,000 bankroll.) The price at the Southpoint sportsbook was -210, which means I’d have to lay out $1,838 for the chance to win $875. The Twins lost.



The next wager was a money line bet for the Cincinnati Reds to beat the Chicago Cubs for 20 units. The Reds lost—another $800 down the drain. The last straight bet was for the St. Louis Cardinals to beat the Cleveland Indians or lose by one run to win $250 by risking $388. The Cardinals beat the Indians 7 to 2. Out of 31 parlays, 29 bets lost and two paid out—$10.79 combined. As losses topped $2,660, Oancea sent his “game of the month” for free, a 110 unit bet on the Braves to beat the Phillies. Atlanta won, but the day’s wagers finished $650 in the hole.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">Vegas Dave, who has a high school education, says he doesn’t mess with math and claims he was born with the talent to predict games.</blockquote>



Vegas Dave is not the first handicapper to sell picks, nor will he be the last. There is a long,<a href="https://vault.si.com/vault/1991/11/18/1-900-ripoffs-the-ads-for-call-in-services-that-offer-sure-thing-betting-advice-on-the-big-games-couldnt-be-more-tempting-our-own-hot-tip-dont-touch-that-phone" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;colorful history</a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;<a href="https://deadspin.com/how-america-s-favorite-sports-betting-expert-turned-a-s-1782438574" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">touts</a>. What’s different about Oancea is that he blends the heart attack-inducing intensity of old school touts with the FOMO and hustle porn culture of Instagram influencers. If you spend enough time scrolling through Vegas Dave’s social media posts, you might start to feel like the only thing standing in your way from sitting courtside at the Lakers game with your girlfriend and three Birkin bags—<a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dave-oancea-aka-vegas-dave-and-his-fianc%C3%A9e-holly-sonders-news-photo/1190113301" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">as Vegas Dave did in 2019</a>—is his advice on who will win tomorrow night.



Most, if not all, professional bettors are number-crunching stat addicts. Rufus Peabody, a professional gambler who studied economics at Yale and specializes in golf bets, created his own computer models to find inefficiencies in the market. But Vegas Dave, who has a high school education, says he doesn’t mess with math and claims he was born with the talent to predict games.



“I just have a good vision and gut. It’s not teachable,” says Oancea. “I could never teach you what I do.”



Vegas Dave claims to be worth $20 million, but he offers no proof to back up his bravado. To signal his wealth, he points to his Rolls-Royce Cullinan and his Ferrari 488 Spider—“I don’t like it,” he says. “I just keep it in the garage.” Oancea also owns a seven-bedroom villa in Cabo, which he’s named “Villa Vegas Dave,” and he owns a 7,000-square-foot home and a two-bedroom condo in Vegas through a trust. He also likes to point out that he has a $1.3 million collection of Hermès Birkin bags.



In April 2019, Oancea bought a very rare <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/itsvegasdave/status/1121839364227473408?s=20" target="_blank">Himalaya Diamond Birkin</a> for $500,000, making it the most expensive Birkin ever sold. But the bag isn’t worth that much, according to Jeff Berk, the CEO of Privé Porter, which sold it to Oancea. “It’s worth probably $350,000,” says Berk. “He knew he was overpaying for it. He wanted to break the record.”



Vegas Dave was born in Saline, Michigan and grew up in Ann Arbor. Oancea, who still has his slight nasal Michigan accent, started collecting and selling baseball cards as a teen. “I did the baseball card hustle from a very young age,” he says.



In 1997, he moved to Hawaii, where he placed his first sports wager. “I bet $300 on a Titans and Raiders game and lost. But I fell in love with sports betting.” That instinct drew him to Sin City in 2001. He told his parents that he would be attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Instead, he took a $10,000 student loan and put it all on red at roulette. He won, doubling his money, and that was the start of his bankroll, he says.



That winning streak wouldn’t last long. Within a year, Oancea filed a voluntary petition for personal bankruptcy. According to court documents, he had just $820 in assets at the time, including $20 in cash.



Oancea started to place bets at sportsbooks like the Westgate under phony Social Security numbers as early as 2007, according to court documents. By 2010, his home was foreclosed upon and sold. Months later, he was arrested for driving under the influence. In 2013, a cop caught him with a “baggie of white powdery substance” at Vegas’ Cosmopolitan hotel, a police report says. The state eventually dismissed the case. In 2016, the same night he lost $1 million on a UFC fight, he got into a physical altercation with his girlfriend which led to a domestic battery charge. The charge was reduced to disorderly conduct after he completed counseling. When asked about the incident today, he says, “It’s all false.”



Oancea is surely not the best handicapper in the world as he claims, nor he is a savant sports card investor. He didn’t purchase Trout’s rookie card before the future Hall of Famer was named Rookie of the Year in 2012. Instead, he bought the card in 2018, when Trout had already won two of his three MVP awards. One thing he did do wisely, however, was notice that the sports card market was getting hot and the Trout cards were likely to increase in value.&nbsp;



The sports memorabilia market, estimated to be a $5 billion industry (annual sales), has historically been more of a hobby until recently. As card prices began to rise over the last few years, investors realized they could put money to work. Now sports cards have become a legitimate alternative asset class with niche investment funds.



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2018/11/14/at-24-two-entrepreneurs-took-on-cancer-at-32-theyre-worth-hundreds-of-millions/">Nat Turner</a>, co-founder and CEO of healthcare technology company Flatiron Health and a 2015 Forbes Under 30 lister, is one of today’s largest sports card collectors. He admits Oancea was smart to buy the rare Trout cards a few years ago. But, Oancea, who is known to pump his card’s prices on social media, is met with “a lot of eyerolls from the collector community,” says Turner.



For Oancea, the sports card market is only a pit stop until he finds his next hustle. “On to the next big thing,” he says.



-Will Yakowicz, Forbes Staff

Celebrities At The Los Angeles Lakers Game

Meet Vegas Dave, A Sports Gambling Hustler, Who Just Sold The Most Expensive Baseball Card In History For $3.9 Million

After a disappointing season, the soccer superstar is eyeing the exit at Barcelona, but he still is on pace to reach that astronomical goal alongside Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather and, yes, Cristiano Ronaldo.



The only move Lionel Messi really needs to make to become soccer’s next billion-dollar man is none at all. If the star forward simply shows up at Barcelona’s Camp Nou in September, he will end the 2020–21 season with more than $1 billion in career earnings, a victory only three athletes before him have won.



It looks like the high-fives may have to wait. After a yearlong battle with FC Barcelona, the Argentine icon is threatening to leave the club after 16 years, ditching the final year of a contract that could make&nbsp;him the highest-paid player in what has become the world’s most lucrative sport.&nbsp;



“Globalization has made soccer, always the world&#8217;s most popular sport, also the world’s most lucrative in terms of revenue generation,” says Stefan Szymanski, author of&nbsp;Soccernomics&nbsp;and a University of Michigan professor of sport management. “In soccer, there is more or less unfettered competition on a global scale—there are no drafts, salary caps, etc.—and the best players generally go to the highest bidder.”



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="396" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gettyimages-1167251285-594x594-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45803" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gettyimages-1167251285-594x594-1.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gettyimages-1167251285-594x594-1-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



It’s the kind of free-market economics that until this year were the domain of independent contractors.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/2009/09/29/tiger-woods-billion-business-sports-tiger.html">Tiger Woods</a>&nbsp;was the first athlete to earn $1 billion while still competing when in 2009 he sunk $10.5 million in prize money and more than $100 million off the links, mostly through an endorsement deal with Nike.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2017/08/26/how-floyd-mayweather-became-boxings-1-billion-man/">Floyd Mayweather</a>&nbsp;landed the honor in 2017 after a bet on himself that removed legendary promoter Bob Arum from his corner and led to a string of self-produced pay-per-view bouts that brought in more than $25 million 12 times, including $275 million for his 2017 fight with Conor McGregor. Messi’s longtime rival&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2020/06/04/ronaldos-105-million-year-tops-messi-and-crowns-him-soccers-first-billion-dollar-man/">Cristiano Ronaldo</a>&nbsp;became the first team-sport competitor to do it when he earned $105 million during the 2019-20 season.&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2014/06/12/michael-jordan-is-a-billionaire-after-increasing-stake-in-hornets/">Michael Jordan</a>, who tallied $550 million in career earnings during his 15 years playing for the Chicago Bulls and the Washington Wizards, remains the world’s only billionaire athlete, the bulk of his fortune created by a well-timed investment in the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.



Messi’s arrival in the billion-dollar clubhouse will mark a climactic chapter in what has been soccer’s most expensive sideshow since 2009, when he and Ronaldo&nbsp;first faced off on competing teams in Spain’s La Liga. The strutting and often shirtless Ronaldo&nbsp;perfected the sport’s showman brand while the media-shy Messi was hailed as the modest one, more interested in his footwork than footwear, as prolific a goal scorer as a wingman and a master at crediting teamwork.



Ronaldo, who is two years older, has become the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2019/08/03/social-medias-most-valuable-athletes-ronaldo-mcgregor-and-lebron-score/">world’s most popular celebrity</a>, with 443 million social followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter—and the most marketable athlete in the world, too. According to Hookit, which tracks social media sponsorship value, from January to July this year, he created $28 million in value for the brands he promoted through 275 social media posts and the 873 million engagements with them. He has a lifetime deal with Nike and a long-term partnership with Herbalife, as well as a lifestyle brand that started with his CR7 line of underwear in 2013 and has expanded to include shoes, perfume, denim, hotels, gyms and his latest offering introduced this month,&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://robbreport.com/style/accessories/cristiano-ronaldo-sunglasses-cr7-eyewear-2941551/" target="_blank">sunglasses</a>. Last season, Ronaldo earned $45 million of his $105 million off the pitch.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="396" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/gettyimages-1142682752-594x594.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-40860" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/gettyimages-1142682752-594x594.jpg 594w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/gettyimages-1142682752-594x594-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Messi is no endorsement slouch either, earning about $33 million annually through endorsement deals with lifetime partner Adidas, Lays, Mastercard, watchmaker Jacob &amp; Co, Qatar-based telecom Ooredoo and his new signature lifestyle brand launched last year with Ginny Hilfiger, sister of Tommy, at The Messi Store website. Hookit reports that from January to July this year, Messi put up 117 social media posts that received 235 million likes, comments or shares, creating $22 million in marketing value for the brands he promoted.



Barcelona is planning to pay its star forward $92 million this upcoming season, about a third of that in the form of performance incentives. Messi has been consistent earning those, posting 12 consecutive seasons with at least 31 goals and hitting 700 career goals in June, joining Ronaldo as the only active player at that level.



Until last week, soccer watchers were expecting the Argentine icon to sign a new&nbsp;deal on par with his current one to take him through retirement, but that was before his battle with Barcelona boiled over. The yearlong fight included a dustup over the midseason appointment of a manager that ended with his dismissal this week, a smear campaign against Messi and his wife reportedly dialed up by the club itself, and an embarrassing 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich that put an early finish to Barça’s Champions League title hopes. It was the first season in 12 years that Messi failed to win a trophy and one for which he took&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2020/03/30/lionel-messis-coronavirus-wage-cut-could-cost-him-50-million/">a 70% cut in base pay</a>—$11 million—after the pandemic halted play for three months.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47209" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/GettyImages-455404136-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Where he lands—and how much he will make there—remains to be seen, although it is unlikely any club can afford to pay him the salary Barcelona can. Messi could do what Ronaldo did when he left Real Madrid&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2018/07/10/cristiano-ronaldo-takes-a-wage-cut-and-leaves-real-madrid-for-juventus/">for Italy’s Juventus</a>&nbsp;and make up for lower gross pay with a tax scheme that keeps his net pay level.



Or if Barcelona’s new manager, Ronald Koeman, can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/53827543" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bring peace back to Barcelona</a>, he could make the whole thing happen this year after all.



“He is the best player in the world, and the best player in the world you want in your team; you don’t want him playing against you,” Koeman said at a Wednesday press conference.



No matter what Messi chooses, the billion-dollar honor is his to lose. Soccer’s No. 3 earner, Neymar, has so far earned $450 million in his career and stands to make less than $100 million this season. Neymar’s Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappé will make less than half that.



-Christina Settimi, Forbes Staff

TOPSHOT-FBL-EUR-C1-BARCELONA-NAPOLI

The Next Billion-Dollar Athlete: Lionel Messi Closes In

The 19-year-old South African gymnast was all set for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in July, for which she had qualified. With the event’s postponement, her goal hasn’t changed, she says, only the timeline has.&nbsp;



At just 19 years old, Caitlin Rooskrantz is South Africa’s gold medal-winning international gymnast.



From Florida, a small suburb in Roodepoort in Johannesburg, and currently in lockdown in the country, if the Covid-19 pandemic hadn’t happened, Rooskrantz would have now been intensely training for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in July, for which she had qualified.



&nbsp;“I qualified for the 2020 Games being the first woman in South Africa’s gymnastics history to have achieved an outright qualification at the world championships,” she told an audience of female powerhouses at the 2020 FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit in Durban on March 6.



Even as a child, when she first took to gymnastics, she had been set on making it to the Olympics one day.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The news of the Games’ postponement has been quite upsetting, but says Rooskrantz: “It is in the best interest of all the athletes because our health comes first, always!” Her favorite quote, in particular, comforts her at this time: “The goal hasn’t changed, just the timeline has, keep going!”



Her training has continued through the lockdown and it has kept her afternoons busy.



“We have set programs to keep up our strength, fitness and flexibility. To try and keep up my mental game, I watch videos daily of any past successful competitions. I analyse my training videos and try to mentally put myself in the video,” she says.



2019 had been “a spectacular year” for her.



“I managed to pass matric well with two distinctions and university entrance while training for my childhood dream. Not only did I bag South Africa’s first-ever gold medal on uneven bars on an international stage, but at just 18 years old, I made history,” she said at the summit, to an applauding audience.&nbsp;



In an interview with FORBES AFRICA, Rooskrantz reflects on the days when it all started, as a young child, when she was a bundle of energy and her parents knew early on that they had to redirect that energy to sport.



A teenager now, but if Rooskrantz has already seen much success, she has also experienced tragedy and hardship.



When she was just eight, her father, from whom she inherited her deep love for sport, passed away. He took his own life.



She had been training at a gymnastics center a few kilometers from home, but that had to stop because of the tragedy and transportation issues. But her former trainer took it upon herself to regularly drive her there.



“Everything started escalating and things took a turn. I dropped all my school sports because I didn’t have any time for them; I had to pick one, especially with the high demand of gym,” she says.



Rooskrantz was placed on a high-performance program and soon started traveling; training more than four hours a day six days a week at the age of 11. This was the intermediate level of her tumbling (a gymnastic feat including the execution of acrobatic feats) profession and the best was yet to come.



Her first overseas trip was to Australia for a training camp in 2012. A few months later, Rooskrantz competed in Serbia for her first international competition. It might have not been the best competition for her, but it was great exposure.



In 2014, South Africa hosted the African gymnastics championships with Rooskrantz the youngest member of the junior team.



“I did well, I don’t remember falling and I made it to the bar finals and that was the time I started to realize my potential on the asymmetric bar. I left that with a big boost to my confidence.”&nbsp;



The young student was progressing quickly, reaching new heights.



On her last year as a junior in the 2016 Junior Commonwealth Games in Namibia, she made three apparatus finals; asymmetric bar, vault and the balancing beam.



An injury kept her away from the Commonwealth Games in Australia in 2018, when she went in for surgery and was off the apparatus for months.



“I was in bed after my operation but back at gym a week after, still on crutches, working on my upper body. In a sport like gymnastics, when you are that injured, it is critical to do something because you lose strength, flexibility and fitness. I was also working on my mental state,” she says of those hard days. Her coach told her the surgery was either going to make or break her career. She was determined to return stronger. She did, and how.

2020 Forbes Woman Africa Leading Women Summit

Staying Flexible: With The Postponement Of The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, This Gymnast’s Goal Hasn’t Changed

Not since World War II has the global sports industry faced such a crippling crisis, which is likely to cost billions of dollars in lost revenue and could yet see the permanent extinction of some teams and competitions.



The coronavirus pandemic that has spread across the world has the potential to change the face of sports forever, and Africa will not be spared, with one administrator suggesting the outbreak could set their game back 20 years.



The severity of the impact will be determined by how long it takes for society to live alongside the pandemic, but even if that were to happen in June, there has already been significant damage done.



Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Ahmad Ahmad has tried to provide a positive outlook, but knows the complexity of the situation on the continent is dire.



None of the 54 domestic leagues in Africa was still running in May, as Burundi was the last to close up shop the month before, but just when cross-border competitions such as the lucrative CAF Champions League, and qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup, can resume, is anybody’s guess given travel restrictions are likely to be in place for some time, and vary from country to country.



“CAF is already focused on the conditions for relaunching our competitions and our events,” Ahmad said in comments supplied to FORBES AFRICA.



“Never has a crisis of such great magnitude crossed the world, never has world sport decreed so many postponements of its programs and never has such a tsunami struck the most basic sporting practice.



“We are now condemned to rebuild the basics, or at least to reinforce them, to energize them so that at the time of recovery, we will be the best structured and best disposed to conquer or re-conquer, the dry territories of sport and football.



It is Ahmad’s way of saying that any thought of returning to pre-coronavirus levels of engagement and sponsorship are fanciful in the short-term, or perhaps even medium-term.



His suggestion of having to “rebuild the basics” is a key admission and will be the same for many sports that face a sponsorship vacuum from some of the world’s leading brands.



When airlines, major sponsors of African sport, have been laying off staff and cut their schedules to next to nothing, can they justify pumping millions of dollars into sport?



The same for car manufactures, loss-making banks and oil companies hit by the drop in the price of crude.



The health conditions to allow play for many sports in Africa may return this year, but the question is whether there will be the financial support vital to being able to play the game.



Selwyn Nathan, commissioner of South Africa’s Sunshine Tour and a leading expert on global golf, suggests the pandemic may return the sport to the year 2000 in terms of financial capabilities.



“It could be like starting a business all over again, you can’t have an attitude that people [sponsors] will just come back,” Nathan says.



“It’s not something unique to Africa, or sport anywhere in the world, but we are going to have to change the way we do things.



“Players will have to accept that they are not going to be playing for the same money, and organizers must accept they will have to ask for less [money] and possibly do more just to retain sponsors.



“It is going to fundamentally change the way we operate and we have to adapt to that.”



Winners in some co-sanctioned Sunshine Tour and European Tour golf events can earn upwards of $1.5-million per tournament, but Nathan believes those numbers will be fanciful for the foreseeable future and it is likely to be a fraction of that.



The pandemic could be the death knell for ailing Super Rugby, the southern hemisphere club championship that has been hanging on for dear life, as it was, due to dwindling interest and its format that sees players criss-cross the globe between Argentina, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Japan.



In the case of world champion Springboks, that could actually work in their favor and see them looking north to Europe for club and country competitions, where the TV revenues are greater and load on players less, according to respected Stormers coach John Dobson.



“I believe there will be a restructuring of the game and that could be at Super Rugby’s expense,” Dobson says. “There could be stronger focus on domestic competitions with less travel and more tailored for television, because ultimately, that is where you get the revenue to run the game.



“It’s critical you have a product that is appealing to rugby fans, and after this period, maybe that will rather involve South African teams playing in the [European] Heineken Cup. I don’t know, but something has to change.”



Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard, who is chairman of the APO Group, a communication and business consultancy in Africa, says he has seen first-hand the toll the virus has taken on sports federations almost across the board.



“I think, unfortunately, it will have a devastating effect for many. First of all, athletes cannot train properly and when you are at the level of international competition, just a few percentage points off can compromise your body,” he says.



“Added to that, there is no competition and the longer this goes on, the longer it will take for athletes to return to peak performances, so in the near term, you will have a poorer product for television and sponsors.”



Pompigne-Mognard says cross-border competitions are vital in Africa and it is in these multi-national tournaments where many federations across different sports make most of their revenue.



“Each African nation is unlikely to return to full health at the same time, so, for example, the Basketball Africa League, which involves 12 teams from across the continent has to be put on hold until travel is possible.



“It will go ahead, but the question is when and what are the financial consequences of this? It is something that we cannot quantify now, so we live in this state of uncertainty and that is not good for anybody, sport or business.”



The postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games to 2021 has brought much relief for many athletes, who had seen their training regimes brought to a halt, or at best conducted in the confines of their own home.



Olympic gold medalist swimmer Chad le Clos had had to make do with what he has at home while in lockdown in South Africa, one of thousands of elite athletes from across Africa in similar situations.



“It is what it is and I am happy with the decision (to move the Olympics) that has been made,” Le Clos says. “I have a small pool at home, so I attach a cord that allows me to stay stationary as I swim.”



&nbsp;“We cannot afford to take a break, even in lockdown. You cannot let yourself lose the months and months of work that you have put into your body.



“I don’t know where or when I will compete again, but you have to stay positive. You have to hope for the best, that is all we can do.”



-Nick Said

Stadium background with a green grass pitch in the daytime

All Home And No Play: Not Since World War II Has The Global Sports Industry Faced Such A Crippling Crisis

Add another zero to soccer’s most expensive rivalry.



Cristiano Ronaldo earned $105 million before taxes and fees in the past year, landing him at No. 4 on the 2020&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;Celebrity 100, one spot above his top rival in the sport, Lionel Messi, and making him the first soccer player in history to earn $1 billion.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The 35-year-old striker is only the third athlete to hit mark while still playing following Tiger Woods, who did it in 2009 on the back of his long term endorsement deal with Nike&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/nike" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NKE</a>, and Floyd Mayweather in 2017, who’s made most of his income from a cut of pay-per-view sales for his boxing matches.&nbsp;



Ronaldo, the first to do it in a team sport, has made $650 million during his 17 years on the pitch, and is expected to reach $765 million in career salary after his current contract ends in June 2022. Messi, who began playing at the senior level three years after Ronaldo, has earned a total of $605 million in salary since 2005. The only team athlete to even come within striking distance of those figures was former New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, who retired in 2016 after 22 years in MLB having earned $450 million in salary. Not even soccer legend David Beckham came close, ending his career with total earnings of $500 million, half of which came from off-pitch endorsements. 



“Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest players of all time, in the world&#8217;s most popular sport, in an era when football has never been so rich,” said Sporting Intelligence’s Nick Harris, whose Global Sports Salaries Survey ranks teams worldwide based on total salary expense. “He&#8217;s box office.&#8221;



Ronaldo and Messi’s head-to-heads heated up in Spain’s La Liga in 2009, where Ronaldo played for Real Madrid and Messi for Barcelona. Their faceoffs on the pitch ignited a nine-year battle for bragging rights as the best — and top-paid — in the sport, a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/2019/06/18/the-worlds-highest-paid-soccer-players-2019-messi-ronaldo-and-neymar-dominate-the-sporting-world/#2f9e5b76b55e">highly personal</a> tit-for-tat that had them re-negotiating contracts in lockstep and monopolizing the game’s highlight reel. 



The rivalry was as entertaining as it was profitable, coming just as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2019/05/29/the-worlds-most-valuable-soccer-teams-2019/#1a0fa8ff40d6">clubs around the world</a>&nbsp;were seeing soaring attendance and an influx of television money. The two were perfectly matched for battle, on and off the pitch: Ronaldo perfected a shirtless, stylized showmanship while Messi played the quiet game, always a tad unkempt and as prolific a scorer as he was a wingman. Ronaldo strutted after every goal. Messi was a master at thanking his teammates.&nbsp;



Both backed it up. Barcelona won the La Liga title six times and two Champions Leagues trophies with Messi on the squad. Real Madrid won the Spanish title twice and the Champions League four times with Ronaldo. During their years in the league, each player nabbed four Ballon d’Ors (soccer’s MVP) and their El Classicos, the nickname for their clubs fierce clashes, were record-setting television events worldwide.&nbsp;



But when it came to leveraging celebrity, it has been no contest. Guided by Jorge Mendes of Gestifute, one of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbelzer/2019/10/21/most-powerful-sports-agents/#1cc52df93b27">world’s most powerful agents</a>, Ronaldo has amassed an ever-growing following of fans and consumers drawn to his poster-boy good looks, trend-setting hair styles, impeccable fashion sense and, lately, his softer side as a family man whose toddlers pop up on his social media posts. In January he became the first person with 200 million followers on Instagram, part of a social media army of 427 million across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter that makes him the most popular athlete on the planet.&nbsp;



Nike pays him upwards of $20 million annually and signed him to a lifetime deal in 2016, making him just the third athlete after Michael Jordan and LeBron James hitched to the Swoosh for eternity. In May, the footwear maker announced the release of a 10-year anniversary edition of his first signature Mercurial Superfly and a child’s version to celebrate his son’s 10th birthday, complete with his famous celebration stance, signature and logo. Pitches for Clear shampoo, Herbalife <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/herbalife" target="_blank">HLF</a>, and pharmaceutical maker Abbott help raise his endorsement tally to $45 million.



Ronaldo, Inc. even has a trademark — CR7, a mix of his initials and jersey number — part of a lifestyle brand that&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates accounts for a quarter of his annual endorsement income, including branded underwear that debuted in 2013 that was followed by a line of shoes, fragrances and denim wear. He partnered with Pestana Hotel Group in 2015 to open his first property a year later in his hometown of Funchal, Madeira, right above Museu CR7, a shrine for his trophies and a retail outlet for his merchandise. He’s since added CR7 clubs with Crunch Fitness, posts workout routines on YouTube and has attached his name to a social media influencing degree offered by Italian online university eCampus.



And the rivalry is far from done.



Ronaldo’s 2020 earnings include a salary of $60 million, slightly less than last year due to a 30% pay cut he agreed to take this April as a result of the pandemic. Messi, who earned $104 million in the past year after taking a 70% pay cut while coronavirus sidelined play, is poised to surpass $1 billion in all-time earnings as soon as next year, before his current Barca contract ends.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinasettimi/">Christina Settimi</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sportsmoney">SportsMoney</a>

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Ronaldo’s $105 Million Year Tops Messi And Crowns Him Soccer’s First Billion-Dollar Man

The 22-year-old Japanese tennis player racked up $37 million in earnings in the past year, more than any other female athlete in history.



Naomi Osaka was only a year old when Serena Williams won her first grand slam title in 1999. Nineteen years later, Osaka beat Williams at the U.S. Open finals to win her first grand slam. It was one of the most controversial matches in Open history involving three code violations called against Williams. Now the 22-year-old ace has beaten her legendary rival once again, this time for bragging rights as the highest-paid female athlete in the world.



Osaka earned $37.4 million the last 12 months from prize money and endorsements, $1.4 million more than Serena, setting an all-time earnings record for any female athlete in a single year; Maria Sharapova held the prior record with $29.7 million in 2015.



Osaka ranks No. 29 among the 100 highest-paid athletes, while Williams is No. 33. It’s the first time since 2016 that two women have made the ranks of the top 100 highest paid athletes, with the full 2020 list set for release next week.



“To those outside the tennis world, Osaka is a relatively fresh face with a great back story,” says David Carter, a sports business professor at USC Marshall School of Business. “Combine that with being youthful and bicultural, two attributes that help her resonate with younger, global audiences, and the result is the emergence of a global sports marketing icon.”



The ascension puts an end to a decisive winning streak for Williams, who has been the world’s highest-paid female athlete each of the past four years, with annual pre-tax income ranging from $18 million to $29 million. The 23-time grand slam champion has collected almost $300 million during her career from endorsers who have swarmed the 38-year-old star.



Osaka’s rise to the head of the charts was a perfect&nbsp; convergence of several factors. She first proved herself on the court, with back-to-back grand slam titles at the 2018 U.S. Open and 2019 Australian Open. That plus her heritage—a Japanese mother and Haitian-American father—helped separate her from the pack; at only 20 when she won her Open title, she had a cool factor and engaging personality.



Osaka’s roots are crucial to her endorsement stardom. She was born in Japan. When she was three, she and her family moved to the U.S., settling on Long Island and then heading to Florida; older sister, Mari, also plays on the pro circuit.



She turned pro in 2014, a month before her 16th birthday. She cracked the WTA’s top 40 in 2016 and won her first title in March 2018 at Indian Wells. In the 12 months that followed, she became the first Japanese player to win a slam, and first Asian tennis player ever to be ranked No. 1 in the world.



Osaka maintains dual citizenship but made the wise choice to represent Japan ahead of the since-postponed Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. The decision made her an even hotter commodity for Olympic sponsors, like Procter &amp; Gamble, All Nippon Airways and Nissin, who signed endorsement deals with Osaka to use her around marketing for the Games, now scheduled for summer 2021. She is expected to be one of the faces of the Olympics that had triggered<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.olympic.org/news/unprecedented-levels-of-excitement-around-the-olympic-games-tokyo-2020" target="_blank"> unprecedented levels of excitement</a> among the Japanese public before the coronavirus.



A Decade Of Highest-Paid Female Athletes



Tennis has been a winning strategy for highest-paid female athletes. Before Naomi Osaka arrived on the scene, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams were the top earning women of the decade, holding the top spot for five and four years, respectively.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tennis-earnings.png" alt="" class="wp-image-45395" width="688" height="447" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tennis-earnings.png 755w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tennis-earnings-300x195.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Tennis-earnings-600x391.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 688px) 100vw, 688px" /></figure>



The last top-earning female athlete, outside of Williams and Sharapova, was Serena’s sister Venus in 2003. Tennis remains the only route for women to rank among the top-paid male sports stars. Sharapova, Li Na, Serena, and now Osaka are the only females to rank among the 100 top earners in sports since 2012. The highest-paid female athlete every year since Forbes started tracking the data in 1990 has been a tennis player, with Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis the top earners most of the 1990s. 



Tennis players are walking billboards in the only major global sport where men and women have some level of equality in their paychecks, thanks to similarly sized audiences tuning in to watch tournaments. Prize money at the four grand slam events has been even since 2007, although men still earn more at lower level tourneys.



The demographics of the tennis fan make sponsoring top players attractive for brands. At the U.S. Open last year, attendance skewed in favor of women by a ratio of 56 to 44, a rarity at big time sporting events; 78% held at least a bachelor’s degree versus 35% for the U.S. overall; the average household income was $216,000. This is a group with significant disposable income, ready to buy apparel, sporting equipment, cars, watches and financial services.



Steering Osaka’s brand is tennis powerhouse agency IMG, which leaned on its history with breakout female tennis stars when Osaka started blowing up, having represented Maria Sharapova and Li. Stuart Duguid is her lead agent at IMG.



The apparel deal is almost always the biggest endorsement for tennis stars, and Osaka’s timing was perfect there as well, as she hit the open market just after winning two grand slams. It triggered a free agency bidding war between Nike and Adidas—her previous apparel sponsor. The Swoosh emerged on top and paid her more than $10 million last year in an agreement that runs through 2025.



Osaka secured an extremely rare but lucrative provision in her Nike contract. The sportswear giant always requires its tennis players to be clad in Nike gear from head to toe, without any other logos on their shirts or hats. This is lucrative real estate for marketers, as cameras focus closely on the player as they serve or get set to return serve.



Nike never made an exemption for Serena, Sharapova, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi or any of the other marketable tennis stars in their stable. The only exception until last year was China’s Li Na; Osaka was the second, thanks to massive leverage with Sharapova headed for retirement and Williams turning 39 this year. Her “patch” deals are with All Nippon Airways, MasterCard and ramen noodle maker Nissin Foods.



Nike plans to launch an Osaka streetwear line in Japan in the fourth quarter, featuring hoodies, leggings and shirts, as well as a new collection each season. There will not be any tennis apparel.



Osaka now has 15 endorsement partners, including global brands like Nissan Motor, Shiseido and Yonex, whose tennis racquets she has used for more than a decade; almost all are worth seven-figures annually.&nbsp;



Sharapova was 17 when she defeated Williams to win the 2004 Wimbledon crown. IMG quickly mobilized to lock up lucrative long-term deals for the Russian, who ranked as the highest-paid female athlete for 11 years before injuries and a suspension for taking a banned substance dented her earnings.



IMG got an education on marketing a female Asian tennis star with China’s Li. She was the first grand slam singles champion from Asia, man or woman, when she captured the 2011 French Open at age 29. IMG quickly secured seven multi-million deals, pushing her off-court earnings from $2 million to $20 million. She challenged Sharapova as the sport’s top earner until her retirement in 2014.



IMG used its expertise in Japan with Kei Nishikori, who has never won a grand slam but is the most successful Japanese male player ever, resulting in an endorsement portfolio worth $30 million a year.



Sharapova, Li and Nishikori paved the way for Osaka’s marketing breakthrough. “We were fortunate to have a very sophisticated office in Tokyo that already had the experience with Kei,” IMG’s head of tennis Max Eisenbud told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;last year. “The relationships in that region are important.”



With plenty of endorsement cash, Osaka<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2019/08/23/business-is-booming-for-tennis-ace-naomi-osaka/#b711e54904de"> partnered with several brands</a> last year, with significant equity components, including emerging sports drink BodyArmor and Hyperice, which makes recovery and movement products.



BodyArmor marketing exec Mike Fedele says Osaka was one of inspirations for its “Only You” ad campaign&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/timnewcomb/2020/05/20/naomi-osaka-shares-on-endorsements-bodyarmor-her-struggles-and-cooking/#a06627639a84">launched this week</a>. “Naomi is fiercely dedicated to perfecting her game on the court and a huge part of that is what she does off the court with her training, nutrition and hydration,”he says.



“I’m really interested in seeing a young business grow and adding value to that process,” Osaka told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;last year. “I tasked my team with finding brands that align with my personality and my interests.”



Brands are lining up to get into the Naomi Osaka business.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/">Kurt Badenhausen</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sportsmoney">SportsMoney</a>

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Naomi Osaka Is The Highest-Paid Athlete Ever, Topping Serena Williams

TOPLINE With most live sports suspended during the coronavirus pandemic, online gamblers have turned to different contests like Russian table tennis and Korean baseball, while also betting on everything from video games and reality television shows to political news and even the weather.



KEY FACTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>“[English] darts and esports have had big increases in betting volumes, along with football [soccer] leagues that have kept playing like the Belarusian Premier League,” says Pascal Lemesre, a spokesman for U.K. betting exchange platform Smarkets. “Horse racing remains our most-traded sport and has made up two-thirds of volume since the lockdown began.”</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Many betting companies, like DraftKings, had to really dig and get creative with new offerings during the pandemic, says Johnny Avello, head of sportsbook for DraftKings. “We went out and found whatever we could… we wanted to keep our customers engaged.”</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>A charity golf match with Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning, Phil Mickleson and Tom Brady, for example, has drawn massive interest and could surpass the betting volumes DraftKings saw in last year’s major golf tournaments.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Betting on esports has also seen a huge uptick and has really “made its mark,” he says: Virtual NASCAR races proved to be immensely popular, along with daily fantasy for video games like League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. </li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>There has also been a lot of interest in betting on politics, including who will win the 2020 U.S. presidential election, who Democratic nominee Joe Biden will choose as his vice president and how long UK prime minister Boris Johnson will stay in office. </li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>According to data from Smarkets, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://smarkets.com/event/886736/politics/us/us-presidential-election-2020/2020-election-winner" target="_blank">almost $2 million</a> has already been traded on the election, with Donald Trump retaining a 5% lead over Joe Biden; Kamala Harris is frontrunner to be Biden’s VP, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://smarkets.com/event/2094165/politics/us/us-presidential-election-2020/democrat-nominee-vp?utm_source=cision&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=politics-prices" target="_blank">slightly ahead</a> of Amy Klobuchar.</li></ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Since the Democratic debate between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in mid-March, DraftKings has offered free-to-play betting pools around many political events, along with reality television shows like Survivor and Top Chef, and even the weather in certain states.</li></ul>



SURPRISING FACT



Bettors have certainly shown interest in gambling on the outcomes of their favorite TV shows: According to data from BetOnline, there was even a flurry of betting on the final episode of&nbsp;The Last Dance, with odds on things like whether Michael Jordan would cry while being interviewed or how many people would be shown with a cigar in their mouth.



WHAT TO WATCH FOR



Sportsbooks are seeing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/05/19/draftkings-shares-skyrocket-thanks-to-bets-on-table-tennis-korean-baseball/#451dc9df78c0">huge pent-up demand</a>&nbsp;as some major sports like NASCAR and German Bundesliga soccer start to resume. Soccer, which normally makes up 45% of the Smarkets’ betting volume, fell to 23%, maintained largely by interest in the Belarusian Premier League and Nicaraguan soccer, both of which continued to play games amid the pandemic. With the German Bundesliga resuming last weekend, betting volumes increased 428% compared to the previous round of fixtures before coronavirus, according to Smarkets.



CRUCIAL QUOTE



“When you don’t have all the normal content, customers will migrate,” Avello says. “That’s the positive that’s going to come out of this—we’re always looking for additional content.”&nbsp;



KEY BACKGROUND



DraftKings reported <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/draftkings-ceo-jason-robins-says-there-was-record-betting-on-nfl-draft.html" target="_blank">record</a> betting during the NFL Draft last month—13x the volume from last year—and has also seen strong interest in the recent return of Ultimate Fighting Championship events, the company said. “We got good action on the stuff we did, but now that we’re starting to get back to core events, demand should rise even higher,” Avello predicts. If the NBA and NHL start playoff seasons this summer and the MLB returns, for instance, “it could be one of the bigger summers that we’ve ever had.”



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/">Sergei Klebnikov</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/markets">Markets</a>

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Here Are All The Crazy Things People Are Betting On In The Absence Of Live Sports

South Africa’s die-hard football fans bemoan the effect the lockdown is having on the game even as they attempt to keep the conversations going.



With sports events taking a big knock from coronavirus lockdowns globally, the venues and stadiums staging them have closed doors, and no one knows when the stars will come out to play again.



It is heartening though that in some places, local sporting groups, especially die-hard football fans, are keeping the spirit alive in their own way.



Take Football Conversations, a company founded by football fanatic Bandile Roro in 2017 and that is also airing as an eponymous show on Soweto TV.



Along with Tiisetso Mofokeng, the company’s CEO, Roro says the entire football community is in shock as they face an uncertain future.



“Football is about the moments, the comebacks and settling scores and when teams don’t have the opportunity to right yesterday’s wrongs today, then it becomes a problem not only for the football teams, but for the fans as well,” adds Mofokeng.



He says this particular anecdote does not only apply to the 90 minutes on the pitch but also to the information and content Football Conversations beams to the public on television.



“An episode that we air the week before, builds up a hunger and desire for a little bit more the following week and when we don’t get that opportunity to air, that’s how one sees how the pandemic poses a problem,” he says.



The lockdown has affected filming as their shows are usually shot in multiple locations to give every episode a different feel.



But the countrywide infections and deaths have stalled all such ambitions.



“This throws the question of morality; how is content creation important when people’s lives are at stake and that is something we had to understand, but also, on the other side of the coin, Football Conversations creates content as escapism at this time of uncertainty,” says Mofokeng.



“Football Conversations endorses the directive from the president,” adds Roro. “We do believe that this particular period will flatten the curve with fewer new infections and the sooner we adhere to it, the sooner we can return to our normal lives.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The company had signed a procurement contract with a private entity prior to the lockdown, but things are on standstill for now.



Hopeful that the Covid-19 infection rate will slow and the lockdown will be lifted, the duo are now planning their next road trips and a new show, Off Pitch Goals, on players and their businesses.



“We also produce podcasts on Spotify and YouTube to engage with our fans just to keep soccer discussions afloat,” says Roro.



The game may have been affected, but the goals stay the same.

Bandile Roro and Tiisetso Mofokeng at Orlando Stadium, Johannesburg

Alive And Not Kicking: ‘Missing The Great Moments In Football’

Doubles match full view – Christiaan Kotze

An Evening When The Stars Descended With Racquets: Federer And Nadal Faced-Off On African Soil For The Mother Of All Tennis Matches

LeBron James’ move to the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency in July 2018 brought star power back to the NBA’s glamour franchise. AT&amp;T hopes James can bring that same star power, and his millions of fans, to its latest offering.



Today, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2019/05/15/worlds-largest-telecom-companies-2019/#2c8aba756d4e">world’s largest telecom company</a>&nbsp;fully launches its new streaming service, AT&amp;T TV (not to be confused with AT&amp;T TV Now), with a national campaign featuring James and others celebrities like Missy Elliott, Tracy Morgan and Cookie Monster in a series of ads based on “TV Famous Mouths.”



James has dominated the NBA action on the court this season. He leads the league in assists and has the Lakers five and a half games ahead of the rest of the Western Conference in his 17th year in the NBA. Yet King James might be enjoying an even better year off the court, with a handful of new lucrative endorsement partners and the continued growth of his I Promise community.



The four-time NBA MVP’s sponsorship prowess and commitment to Akron schoolchildren converge with the multiyear AT&amp;T agreement. As part of the partnership, AT&amp;T’s technology and other resources will be allocated to the I Promise Village, which serves as transitional housing for families with students at the nearby I Promise School opened by James, his namesake foundation and the Akron school district in 2018.



“To have one of the biggest communications companies in the world believe in my kids and the work we’re doing to uplift families is incredible,” James said in a release announcing the agreement.



James already has a deep relationship with AT&amp;T through the company’s Warner Bros. Entertainment and HBO divisions. His production company, SpringHill Entertainment, partnered with Warner Bros. to develop the&nbsp;Space Jam 2&nbsp;film, which stars James and is set for a 2021 summer release.&nbsp;The Shop&nbsp;and&nbsp;Student Athlete&nbsp;are both SpringHill shows that appear on HBO. And Warner Bros. and Turner Sports&nbsp;<a href="https://www.warnerbros.com/news/press-releases/uninterrupted-secures-158m-financing-led-warner-bros-entertainment/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">invested $15.8 million</a>&nbsp;in late 2015 in Uninterrupted, the digital multimedia company founded by James and his business partner Maverick Carter.



AT&amp;T joins James’ burgeoning endorsement portfolio, which also added Rimowa luggage, Walmart and the mental fitness app Calm over the past year. General Motors revealed James as its new pitchman last month&nbsp;<a href="https://people.com/sports/super-bowl-2020-lebron-james-gmc-ad/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">during a Super Bowl ad</a>&nbsp;for the upcoming GMC Hummer EV. The above brands&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2019/10/23/the-nbas-highest-paid-players-2019-20-lebron-james-scores-record-92-million/#29cb1fe4dae6">join James’ longtime sponsors</a>&nbsp;Nike, Coca-Cola, Beats and Blaze Pizza.&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates James will earn more than $60 million off the court this year, on top of his $37.4 million salary with the Lakers. Nike represents&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2019/08/28/the-nbas-richest-shoe-deals-lebron-kobe-and-durant-are-still-no-match-for-michael-jordan/#476c1dac3d02">more than half</a>&nbsp;of his endorsement earnings.



James has incorporated many of his recent sponsors into his I Promise initiative, including AT&amp;T. Walmart stocks the school’s pantry, which is accessible 24 hours a day for the school’s families, with fresh and frozen food, toiletries and other basic necessities. The content on the Calm app is available to all I Promise students and staff.



AT&amp;T TV has been available in 13 cities to this point. It&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/at-t-launches-new-online-tv-service-as-video-customers-fall-1282026" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">enters a crowded streaming market</a>&nbsp;battling for cord-cutters, many of them subscribers of DirecTV, which AT&amp;T acquired in 2015 for $48.5 billion. AT&amp;T TV features an Android-based set-top box that acts like a Roku or Apple TV and offers live TV, DVR storage and on-demand titles that are also available on mobile devices.



AT&amp;T is banking on James to attract subscribers. His 150 million social media fans across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are by far the most of any American athlete. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2019/08/03/social-medias-most-valuable-athletes-ronaldo-mcgregor-and-lebron-score/">The only athletes with more fans</a> are global soccer stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.



<figure class="wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="AT&amp;T TV Multi-Screen | AT&amp;T" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IsJ0BPC3Ij8?start=1&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/">Kurt Badenhausen</a>, Forbes Staff, Sports Business

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LeBron James Adds Multiyear AT&T Deal To His Endorsement Stable

A recent soccer clinic in Soweto had former Liverpool F.C. player John Barnes coaching young girls to become the future stars of Africa.

It’s high noon but the skies are overcast in Soweto on this Wednesday afternoon in October. It is business as usual in this urban Johannesburg township but as we approach Meadowlands, it starts to drizzle.
But rain or shine, at the Fiat Sports Centre here, a group of over 40 girls aged between 12 and 14 are oblivious to everything around them. Their eyes are trained on the ball as they make the most of the day out on the field with visiting retired Jamaican-born professional footballer John Barnes.
It’s a soccer coaching clinic with the star and the girls are wearing big smiles and bright red outfits.
The well-maintained field is separated into rectangles so the groups are smaller and easier to manage. Each section has a coach, balls and marking cones for the different skill-building tasks planned for the day.
Barnes pays close attention to the teams, occasionally offering advice to both the coaches and players.
<blockquote>“It is about empowering young girls and making them feel confident about expressing themselves. It is about making them feel confident that there are no barriers that stop them from achieving their goals,” he says.</blockquote>
The former Liverpool Football Club player and English Football Hall of Fame inductee has been playing football for as long as he can remember., so he only knows too well the preoccupations of these young minds.
He moved to England at the age of 12, and joined the professional ranks at 17 when he signed for Watford in 1981. Barnes later moved to Liverpool F.C. in his early 20s where he played for a decade.
Today, in Soweto, he motivates the girls on the field, goading them on to perform better than boys.
“You have to separate football when you talk about it in South Africa, into men’s football and women’s football. Men’s football is really well-advanced, they have huge support, lots of money, great players, but women’s football is just starting out. It is pleasing to see that young girls are now given an opportunity because young girls in Africa are told that they do not play football but they actually do,” says Barnes.
<div id="attachment_37650" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37650" class="wp-image-37650 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JohnBarnes_GL-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="494" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JohnBarnes_GL-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JohnBarnes_GL-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JohnBarnes_GL-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JohnBarnes_GL-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JohnBarnes_GL.jpg 1654w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />John Barnes. Photo By Gypseenia Lion</div>
The girls receive coaching as part of the Goal global community initiative by Standard Chartered Bank. In South Africa, the program was launched in Tshwane in April 2015 and has since reached over 6,000 girls. The target for 2018 is just over 3,000 girls between Tshwane and Soweto.
In partnership with Altus Sport, an NGO developing youth and sport, the 2018 Soweto program includes this special interaction with Barnes.
Former Banyana Banyana player, Thando Dlamini, started coaching at the clinic this year. She says some of the girls lack discipline, and stresses how support from family members and the community can go a long way to help.
“You hardly see any of the parents coming to support the girls. I think if they came to the games and watch the girls, they will realize it is not about the misconceptions. The behavior has changed in some of the girls I worked with. Soccer teaches you discipline,” says Dlamini.
The star of the day at the soccer clinic, Mosima Magome, a Grade 8 student, agrees. She says she has been feeling more confident since starting soccer.
“People would always tease me because I am the shortest in class,” she says. The teenager looks up to global icon, Lionel Messi, because “he never quits, even when he misses a goal”.
Commenting on the general lack of interest in skills-building programs, Altus Sport’s Operations Manager Samantha Pennells says local professional sportsmen should give back to the community as well.
“You got a guy from Liverpool, like John Barnes. He is here in the community; it is not his community but he is here giving advice, giving tips. It was not just about sport, it was about life,” she says.
South African football veteran Steve Sekano, a guest at the soccer clinic, and Barnes share jokes on the sidelines.
The former Moroka Swallows Football Club midfielder runs a foundation within the community that aims to get the youth involved in sport. With hopes that sport will keep them out of trouble, Sekano advocates the need for more facilities in the area. He says that as a former professional, it is his duty to give back.
“People ask me why soccer is not the same as when you guys played. I say it is the same. But when you talk about soccer today, you talk about money. Because our players are earning a lot of money today. Those days, we were not earning a lot of money, we were committed. But our players need to up their game; our game must grow,” says Sekano.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-37649 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JBGirls_GL-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="494" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JBGirls_GL-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JBGirls_GL-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JBGirls_GL-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JBGirls_GL-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JBGirls_GL.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />
For Geraldine Matchaba, Head of Corporate Affairs, Brand &amp; Marketing, South Africa and Southern Africa, at Standard Chartered Bank, the corporate world too has a responsibility to prioritize community-based issues. “Those are people who are your future employees, they are your clients and they are future leaders. You have to play a role. It is what we are doing with the Goal program,” she says.
Thoko Phakati, Sports Field Manager, is in charge of operations at the Fiat Sports Centre. The space that used to be a dumping site is now accessible to the community free of charge.
“We believe they also deserve a chance, why is it that only places like the Wanderers Stadium are supposed to look beautiful? So we are doing as much as we can here to give kids a chance. We have people like Steve Sekano who grew up here and became successful but if he were to tell you his story, you will find that he also had challenges growing up,” she says.
Soweto truly is the home of South African football, and the young girls here prove they too can chase a ball for 90 minutes. There is a long conversation to be had about policies that prioritize men over women in sport, but in the meantime, programs such as Goal and footballers like Barnes continue to make sure that new stars are born on the muddy fields of Soweto.
&nbsp;

SoccerClinicGirls_GL

Giving Girls Goals; Soweto’s Soccer Coaching Clinic

South African women’s footballer Refiloe Jane, turning out for Canberra next season, has had a meteoric rise in the sport.

South African women’s footballer Refiloe Jane has had a remarkable rise in her career that will enter a new phase in the coming months when she turns out for Australian side Canberra United.
Jane was in Grade 11 when she was spotted in a player talent search, plucked from obscurity and put onto the path to a highly successful career with her technical ability already standing out from her peers.
The diminutive midfielder has since appeared at the Olympic Games in 2012 and 2016, captained the South African national side that is nicknamed Banyana Banyana, and is now set to become the latest player in the country to ply their trade abroad.
She is part of a growing contingent of exports, as just two years ago there were no players at clubs outside of colleges in the United States.
But since then her compatriots Janine van Wyk, Thembi Kgatlana and Linda Motlhalo have turned out for Houston Dash in the prestigious National Women’s Soccer League, Leandra Smeda now plays for top Lithuanian side Gintra Universitetas and Ode Fulutudilu plays at Finland side ONS.
Jane and fellow Banyana star Rhoda Mulaudzi will carry the mantle further when they turn out for Canberra next season.
For Soweto-born Jane it is an almost unbelievable level of success that started with winning a talent search at the age of 16, which came with a prize of a trip to England to train with professional clubs that opened her eyes to the level required to be a success.
“Winning the Gauteng Future Champions Talent Identification Programme really kick-started my career and gave me so much confidence to believe that I can play for a top local side and even internationally,” Jane tells FORBES AFRICA.
“The time I spent with Arsenal and Everton also opened my eyes up to what is required to be a professional player and I made sure that I put into practice what I learned there.
“Although I had not gone there for trials, both coaches of the teams wanted me to stay, but I was still at school. That is when I realized that I might actually have some special talent to offer the beautiful game.
<blockquote>“And that is when I started pursuing this dream of mine of wanting to go and play abroad. I am glad it’s finally happening.”</blockquote>
Jane is a key figure for the national side that will hope to win the African Women’s Championship in Ghana in November, though just finishing in the top three will get them a place at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France and a first-ever place at the global finals.
It has also been a meteoric rise for her in a national team jersey, including wearing the captain’s armband.
“After joining Mamelodi Sundowns Ladies in late 2010, I put my head down and said to myself that I am going to give everything I have to try and make it into the Banyana Banyana squad. 
“I feel very happy and honoured and appreciate the platform I have been given to showcase my talent and represent my country. It hasn’t been easy but with the determination and hard work, it was enough to get me here.
“I earned my first cap in Cyprus in 2012. I remember when I came on [as a substitute], we were leading against Northern Ireland and our coach then, Joseph Mkhonza, said to me, ‘this is your chance to start your national team career, run with it and see how far it takes you’. I cannot believe how far I have come.”
&#8211; Nick Said

South Africa v Brazil: Women’s Football – Olympics: Day 4

How One Female South African Footballer Is Forging Ahead

The gender pay gap remains enormous in sport. Despite women’s achievements in rugby, football and cricket, resources continue to be channeled to men’s sport in South Africa.

In May this year, Cricket South Africa (CSA) CEO Thabang Moroe made a bold pronouncement – he wanted to see men and women paid equally in the sport.
Bold because contentious contractual agreements for national contracts – for men – had not been signed yet, following a lengthy standoff between the South African Cricketers’ Association and the suits at CSA.
Bold because cricket – and sport in general – was a long, long way away from gender parity.
The silence from the other sports federations was audible. You would think such a statement would spark the ‘Four-Minute Mile’ effect and cause the other sports administrators to take up the fight for equal gender pay. Not a word.
The last known figures (2015) showed Proteas women earned about eight times less than the men. If the men win a Test, it’s R10,000 ($690) to R80,000 ($5,520).
Those figures might have improved for the women following financial wellness company Momentum’s injection into the sport, especially after their stellar showing at the Women’s World Cup in England last year, where they made the semifinals. However, the gap remains enormous.
The general consensus is that the AB de Villiers big hits and Kagiso Rabada’s bombardier bowling bring in the audience and therefore they deserve a bigger slice of the pie.
But how can they not be viewed in higher marketing esteem when all the resources are channeled to boys’ sports from inception? When there are school rugby derbies, the sister schools are in the stands watching the boys play but where are the boys when the girls play?
The game is rigged from the start. Women are playing a board game of snakes with no ladders, whereas the men are in a game of ladders with no snakes.
At the last women’s World Cup in 2014, the Springboks women’s squad members were paid somewhere between R5,000 ($345) and R7,000 ($483) per match, according to a source within SA Rugby.
Pitiful as those wages were, they were the last seen by the XV-player version of the women’s game. For four years, the rugby mother body scheduled no Tests for the women’s national team, choosing instead to focus on the Sevens derivative, whose players received R12,000 ($828) to R20,000 ($1,380) in match fees.
This year, the women’s national XV-a-side team returns to the field, most likely to cobwebs where a fair wage should be.
Au contraire, the men are laughing all the way to the bank. The current HSBC Sevens World Series champions, the Blitzboks, can each expect nothing less than R800,000 ($55,288) per year for contracted players, while Springbok match fees range from R90,000 ($6,220) to R120,000 ($8,230) per game and double that for a victorious match.
Consider the dual contracts rugby players can sign with South African as well as Japanese franchises – which can climb to about R13 million ($900,000) in East Asia alone. Such figures would make any of the female players’ eyes water.
An SA Rugby spokesperson says: “South African rugby is excited and committed to the challenge of growing women’s rugby in this country.
Our major challenge is the relatively small number of female players from which we can choose but we have addressed that by creating under-16 and under-18 competitions as well as establishing youth training centers around the country where female players can train and be upskilled.
<blockquote>“Only once we have reached a critical mass of female players will be able to think of professionalizing the women’s provincial game.”</blockquote>
What South African female footballers receive is a borderline insult.
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A Banyana Banyana player, who has also played for the national team at Under-17 and Under-20 level, says, on condition of anonymity: “I didn’t receive any allowance for playing Under-17 and Under-20.
“With Banyana, I think it’s roughly R4,000 ($276) for being in camp for a week and if you win, you get a bonus of about R2,000 ($138).”
The women’s football team has qualified for the last two Olympic Games, in Britain and Brazil, while the men’s team has all but underperformed on the international stage. This has not prevented brand and sponsorship managers to jump towards the Premier Soccer League, making it the richest league on the African continent.
Women’s football in South Africa survives on the lone sponsorship from Sasol, who provide for an amateur league and the women’s national team needs. The paucity of resources also means that the sport fails to attract talented women, who would much rather earn a living in an office job.
A recent news report showed that Bafana Bafana players could get R40,000 ($2,767) to R60,000 ($4,150) per match, despite a chronic inability to qualify for major tournaments consistently. Banyana Banyana, by virtue of a 6-0 victory over Lesotho in June, qualified for the CAF Women Nations Cup to be held in Ghana later this year.
Recently appointed South African Football Association (SAFA) Vice-President, Ria Ledwaba, the first woman to hold the post, says a fresh approach to luring sponsors into the women’s game is needed. As it stands, Sasol is the biggest sponsor of women’s football, and they keep the lights on not just for the national team but the domestic Sasol League as well.
“We need other Sasols to come on board,” says Ledwaba.
<div id="attachment_37330" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37330" class="size-medium wp-image-37330" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Gree_Midrand_027-copy-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Gree_Midrand_027-copy-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Gree_Midrand_027-copy-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Gree_Midrand_027-copy.jpg 461w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />SAFA Vice-President, Ria Ledwaba.</div>
“We want our girls to be encouraged to play soccer. They [probably] look at what Banyana are earning now and say, ‘What’s the point? It’s not going to take me another level’. But when you look at Bafana, you know what you get when you get called up and that’s because of a sponsor.
“Sometimes you must go to the market and get competent companies that are able to package sponsors in, and sell what Banyana have achieved. We need to draw in companies that sell products that are used by women and such. And if you don’t approach them, they won’t come to you.”
Former Banyana captain Amanda Dlamini, tweeted in May: “I’m still mad at myself for this, for allowing people to emotionally manipulate us of what we deserve [sic]. People make serious money with just under 50 caps of national duty. We still struggle to make ends meet during our prime &amp; even after retirement.”
In that lone statement, the pitiful situation can be summed up.
&#8211; By Sibusiso Mjikeliso

Tag: Sports

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