Professional sports is one of the world markets that generates and moves the most money, and the big stars earn astronomical figures. There’s nothing particularly surprising or revealing in that. However, those well-known numbers that include several zeros are even more impressive thanks to the detailed analysis by North American bookmaker OLBG that has documented, based on the profits and amount of the contracts to which Forbes has shared, the amount per actual minute of official action, whether that be playing or fighting.
Conor McGregor making millions per minute
In short, the study sought to discern who earns more money for each minute of competitive action (the boxing and MMA data are taken from fights 1 May 2021 to 1 May 2022, while the team players correspond to the 2021/22 calendar season of each sport) and there is a clear winner: Conor McGregor. The 34-year-old Irish battler made the most of the five minutes of the fight he lost, and where he was seriously injured, against the American Dustin Poirier (07/10/2021 in Las Vegas) to be the leader in monetization since he increased his coffers by 31 million… which means that he collected one million for every nine seconds. That’s 6,200,000 per minute!
The man known as Notorious reigns in this ranking ahead of two boxers who accompany him on the hypothetical podium: Canelo Álvarez and Tyson Fury. Both beat him outright in total earnings, but not in the sports action time it takes to make a million nor in the amount they pocket in 60 seconds. The 32-year-old Mexican took 80 million in 61 minutes of boxing, which is equivalent to one million every 43 seconds and 1,310,000 per minute. For his part, the Gypsy King won 56 million in 55 minutes; to 1,030,000 for every sixty seconds.
With the top four places taken up by combat sports, the next professional activity to dominate in these rankings is clearly NFL, with the rest of the Top 10 showing players from gridiron. After that we begin to see other sports stars, with the highest paid soccer players, for example, including the likes of Neymar, Messi, Cristiano and Mbappé (before his pay rise) well down. Obviously the fact that they spend much longer actually doing their job — 90 minutes for one game — plays a huge part in this.
EARNINGS-PER-MINUTE RANKING
| POSITION | ATHLETE (SPORT) | TOTAL ($M) | MIN. TOTALS | $1 million every… | $/MINUTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Conor McGregor (MMA) | 31 | 5 | 9 sec. | 6,200,000 |
| 2. | Canelo Alvarez (boxing) | 80 | 61 | 43 sec. | 1,310,000 |
| 3. | Tyson Fury (boxing) | 56 | 55 | 59 sec. | 1,030,000 |
| 4. | Jake Paul (boxing) | 28 | 44 | 1:28 | 641,870 |
| 5. | Ryan Ramczyk (NFL) | 36.4 | 600 | 3:30 | 60,720 |
| 6. | Aaron Rodgers (NFL) | 53.6 | 1,020 | 17:54 | 52,610 |
| 7. | Matthew Stafford (NFL) | 65.7 | 1,260 | 18:03 | 52,150 |
| 8. | Josh Allen (NFL) | 59.3 | 1,140 | 18:06 | 52,020 |
| 9. | Kirk Cousins (NFL) | 43.3 | 960 | 20:52 | 45,110 |
| 10. | Amary Cooper (NFL) | 36.6 | 900 | 23:08 | 40,690 |
| 12. | Klay Thompson (NBA) | 35.7 | 941 | 12:46 | 38,020 |
| 18. | Neymar Jr. (soccer) | 65.9 | 2,328 | 33:15 | 28,310 |
| 20. | Tom Brady (NFL) | 30.3 | 1,140 | 35:44 | 26,340 |
| 22. | Leo Messi (soccer) | 70.6 | 2,872 | 38:18 | 24,580 |
| 26. | Stephen Curry (NBA) | 43.1 | 2,211 | 48:17 | 19,150 |
| 28. | LeBron James (NBA) | 38.7 | 2,084 | 50:35 | 18,620 |
| 30. | Cristiano Ronaldo (soccer) | 56.4 | 3,220 | 53:40 | 17,540 |
| 37. | Kylian Mbappé (soccer) | 26.3 | 3,912 | 2:19:43 | 6,740 |
