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The most profitable athlete on Instagram: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or LeBron James?

By Fredi Roman

These three sport stars are the main attractions for the different brands to invest in this particular social network.

These three sport stars are the main attractions for the different brands to invest in this particular social network.

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Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James are three of the most important athletes of all time. They are the attraction of millions of people around the world for what they do on the field, but also for what they do outside of it. And they have gained fortunes because of their talent to play and because of the sponsorships and endorsements. Especially through the social network Instagram, where they have plenty of followers.

In this way, the companies Nielsen and SportsPro prepared an investigation that analyzed 6000 athletes from 21 different disciplines. This system was developed by the consultancy to accurately monitor the effectiveness of social campaigns and help sponsors to maximize their impact, and were taken in account details such as social following, content engagement, fanbase growth over time, media value and branded versus organic content performance.

This global study places Lionel Messi, from Barcelona, as the most profitable athlete for brands on Instagram. He has 185 million followers and 37% sponsored posts. With 117 of them, which received 235 million likes, it generated $ 22 million in marketing value for its sponsors. The captain of the Argentine National Team heads this list that measures the relevance on his followers (geographical, gender or subject affinity), the conversation generated by their updates and the return economic giving to sponsors.

 

Hookit, dedicated to analyzing the advertising business, reported that, although he has different contracts with various huge brands from all over the world, the most prominent is the one he signed with Adidas, which according to Spanish media is a bond that will last at least until the end of his playing career, and brings him around €12 million euros per year. This is undoubtedly one of Messi's biggest income.

Although Cristiano Ronaldo has more followers (263 million), he's second on the podium of the most profitable athletes on Instagram. It's important to say that, despite he earns less in contract that other of the top international figures, CR7 equates with the contracts signed with brands.The third place in this ranking is occupied by the NBA player LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers), who has 79 million followers.


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