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We love sports and they are varied to suit our diverse sporting human interests. Some of us are into football, others are into motor racing, some fancy car racing and the list can be endless. Each sporting league needs a professional touch for it to be well organized as well as increase its chances of becoming a commercial success.
The following leagues are the world’s biggest professional sports league in terms of revenue generated. From baseball to ice hockey, we have it all covered. Read on to see if your favourite professional sports league is big on making money.
#10 Formula One (Auto Racing)
Sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), Formula One is single-seater auto racing’s epitome. Since its inaugural season in 1950, The Formula One World Championship has managed to be the world’s premier form of racing. Grands Prix are the series of races that make up a Formula One season. The series of races are held worldwide on Formula One ready circuits and public roads.
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A points system is used to evaluate the results of each race and determine the two annual World Championships. Of all the road racing cars in the world, F1 cars are undoubtedly the fastest regulated.
Formula one may be raced out majorly in Europe but the league does have an International touch as 11 of the 21 races in the 2018 season were conducted outside Europe. Formula One’s revenue as of 2017 was at € 1.83bn.
#9 UEFA Champions League (Association football)
Organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the UEFA Champions League is an annual continental club football competition contested by top division European clubs. Though it is ninth-placed, the UEFA Champions League is regarded as one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world.
The league is contested by the various national league champions across Europe together with some of the runners-up of some of Europe’s strongest UEFA national associations. In case you didn’t know, the world’s most watched annual sporting event is none other but the UEFA Champions League final.
Over the 2016-17 season, the UEFA Champions League generated revenue worth €2.09 bn.
#8 Serie A (Association football)
This is Italian club football’s top-tier league. Some of Europe’s most successful clubs compete in this league. Serie A is a long-running league having commenced in the 1929-30 season. The league consists of 20 football clubs that get to face each other in home and away fixtures with the winner getting the Coppa Campioni d'Italia.
The three football clubs at the bottom of the table get relegated to the second tier Serie B. The Serie is home to three of Europe’s biggest clubs; Juventus, Milan and Internazionale. Not only is the league considered among the best in the world, but it is also often portrayed as the most technical national league.
The league generated revenue worth € 2.27bn in the 2016-17 season.
#7 La Liga (Association football)
La Liga is Spain’s top-tier club football league. Officially, the league is known as Primera Division but the name La Liga has stuck amongst football fans. 89 years and the football league is still growing strong.
Going by UEFA’s coefficients, La Liga has been Europe’s top league for about five years now. The league is also home to Europe’s best performing clubs on the continental stage. Primera Division is where the antagonistic story of Real Madrid and Barcelona gets to be played out every season.
The league generated € 3.36bn in the 2016-17 season.
#6 Bundesliga (Association football)
This is Germany’s top club football league comprising 18 teams. It looks like the German football fans are dead serious about their football as Bundesliga is the professional football league with the highest average stadium attendance in the world.
Of all the professional sports leagues in the world, only the American National Football League has a higher number of average attendances in a match. The Bundesliga comes in as the fourth best European football league based on UEFA’s coefficients. Bayern Munich is Bundesliga’s most successful club with Borussia Dortmund being their most formidable opponents.
The league generated € 3.37bn in course of the 2016-17 season.
#5 National Hockey League (Ice hockey)
The National Hockey League (NHL) is North America’s professional ice hockey league. Presently, 31 teams take part in the league with 24 teams being American and the remaining 7 being Canadian teams.
At 100 years old, the NHL’s Stanley Cup is regarded as North America’s oldest professional sports trophy. At the end of the season, the Stanley Cup is awarded to the league’s playoff champion. The league is regarded by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) as the sport’s most important championship.
The NHL generated revenue worth € 3.7bn in the 2016-17 season.
#4 Premier League (Association football)
This is the top tier league in the English football league system. The league is comprised of 20 teams that get to face each other (in home and away fixtures). The bottom three teams get to be relegated to the English Football League with the top three securing direct qualification to the UEFA Champions League. The fourth team gets to play in a playoff to determine its involvement in Europe’s premier football championship.
The league was birthed in 1992 after the top teams broke from the English Football League to form the Premier League. The league is undeniably the most watched sports league in the world and only comes second to the Bundesliga in terms of average football league match attendance. As of 2018, the Premier League is the second best European national football league based on UEFA’s coefficients.
The league made revenue worth € 5.3bn in the 2016-17 season.
#3 National Basketball Association (NBA, Basketball)
The NBA is the professional basketball league in North America. 30 teams take part in the premier national basketball league. Of the 30, only one team is Canadian with the rest being American.
The league was established in 1946 as Basketball Association of America (BAA). NBA came into being 3 years later after the BAA merged with the competing National Basketball League.
The NBA is undeniably regarded as the premier basketball league in the world. Based on the average annual salary per player, NBA is the best paying league in the world. NBA made € made 5.94bn in the 2016-17 season.
#2 Major League Baseball (MLB, Baseball)
The MLB is a professional baseball league that is the oldest of all of the major professional sports leagues in North America. Presently, the MLB is composed of 30 teams; 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada.
A total of 162 games are played in each season and five teams in each league advance to a four-round postseason tournament that culminates in the World Series, a best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions.
The MLB is king when it comes to season attendance as no other sports league in the world has a higher season attendance figure.
MLB generated € 7.68bn in 2017.
#1 National Football League (NFL, American football)
We are at the top of the mountain and the NFL is right here. Consisting of the American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC), the NFL is a professional American football league made up of 32 teams. These teams are equally divided between the AFC and NFC. The NFL is one of North America’s four major professional sports leagues and is the premier American football league in the world.
The league runs for 17 weeks and it culminates in the Super Bowl which is normally played out in February’s first Sunday. The Super Bowl normally pits the NFC champions against the AFC champions. Of all the professional sports leagues in the world, the NFL has the highest average attendance. As America’s most popular sports league it’s no wonder the Super Bowl is regarded as one of the world’s biggest club sporting events.
The NFL is also the world’s biggest professional sports league based on revenue generated in a season. The NFL generated a staggering €10.7bn in 2016.
