LeBron James beats out Tiger Woods for most valuable sports brand

Per Forbes, LeBron James beats out Tiger Woods for most valuable sports brand

Forbes Magazine released a list of the most valuable brands in sports Tuesday and we saw the man who held the top spot for so long go down. Tiger Woods fell to LeBron James. Tiger Woods has been No. 1 since 2007. LeBron James leads Tiger Woods by just $1 million. Yes, i said “just.”

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A sports brand doesn’t mean how much the athlete is paid on the court, but how much the athlete is paid off the court. Both athletes have strong deals with Nike which makes up for most of the brand money, but Tiger lost a key sponsor. Tiger Woods will no longer be working with video game company Electronic Arts after they had made 14 versions of Tiger Woods PGA Tour. That sponsorship? $10 million dollars per year that Woods no longer gets (not that he needs it). This took Tiger from $46 million a year to a mere $36 million.

LeBron James earned just $27 million last year off the court but now has $37 thanks to his numerous big name sponsors including Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Upper Deck.

LeBron is nine years younger than Tiger Woods and LeBron is reaching the peak of his career while it looks like that may have come and gone for the 38-year-old already golf legend. He won zero events in 2014, battling severe back and knee injuries. In 2013 Woods won five. Woods won’t be done and expect him to win more majors. 38 is young for a golfer and Jack Nicklaus won his final major at age 46. We’ll see what Tiger does to compensate himself for the $10 million he lost in the EA deal.

For LeBron, we expect his money off the court to keep growing.

Sitting at No. 3 on the list is Roger Federer and golfer Phil Mickelson and Indian cricket player Mahendra Singh Dhoni round out the top-5.

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