Less Reach, Greater Revenues: How US Major Leagues Outpace More Popular European Football Leagues
The Premier League is often pointed to as being the biggest, most popular, and most-watched domestic sports league in the world. Huge games in La Liga and many clashes in the Bundesliga and Serie A often also garner colossal global audiences. Yet, none of these compare to the revenues of their US-centric counterparts.
This is despite them having a much more concentrated audience and, strangely, the more global-reaching of the major leagues earn less in revenues. This is a look at those numbers that have pumped US major leagues and their teams above even the most popular of European football clubs and the avenues they explore to achieve this.
Only the Premier League Can Break the Major League Monopoly
Among the five leagues that collected the most revenues in 2023, four of them were the continent’s most prominent major leagues. The NFL, MLB, and NBA take the top three spots with revenues of $19.2 billion, $11.6 billion, and $10.6 billion, respectively.
The NHL, which is the only one of these to have more than one Canadian team, clocks in with a still hefty $6.4 billion annually. Splitting the NBA and the NHL is the Premier League at $7.6 billion. Under the NHL, the Bundesliga ($4.1bn), La Liga ($3.8bn), and UEFA Champions League ($3.5bn) ranked as the next-best in that year of recording.
Within all of these leagues, individual teams can boast tremendous value. However, only two of the top 15 most valuable sports teams in the world reside in Europe. US franchises like the Dallas Cowboys ($10.1bn) and Golden State Warriors ($8.8bn) are valued at a sum greater than what the Premier League earns in revenues each year.
Avenues Major Leagues Explore
Being based in North America, major leagues are particularly exposed to a sophisticated and lucrative world of marketing and licensing. Both teams and the league get to benefit greatly from big-money licensing and merchandising deals. In fact, some see the many deals made as bringing the NFL around $3 billion each year.
In recent years, teams have been jumping on one of the newest arenas of potential licensing. This arena is that of online gambling, which has only been growing across the US and Canada for a handful of years. Already, there’s a whole host of localised, officially licensed team gambling games, like New York Jets table games.
The Premier League, for example, could pursue a similar path. In the UK casino market, branded games are already commonplace. Just a look among those featured games reveals Family Feud Live from Las Vegas, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Brian Lara: Sporting Legends, and Space Invaders Roulette, which are all officially licensed.
You won’t find an official Premier League or football club game in the mix. This is despite such a venture likely being rather popular. However, merchandising and licensing is just one of the levers being pulled to a greater degree across the pond. A huge part of the greater revenues is the league format.
The NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and even the MLS are insular leagues. There isn’t any risk of relegation, and teams can fail on the pitch for years without recourse. It helps to create stability for investors, for team finances, and when selling colossal TV deals. It’s this path to cash that the maligned European Super League tried to forge.
While European football leagues and clubs could be seen as leaving money on the table when compared to US major league earnings, fans would likely prefer that the more competitive league formats be kept in place.
