What Is An Athlete Partnership Worth?

The Answer Both Athletes and Brands Need To Know

Jeremy Caplan

Slap your left cheek, then your right and ask yourself how much? And when? Each night before you go to bed, you’ll always remember the price of a dollar. These are some of the great words that I’ll never forget from one of my finance professors in the university. The reason I’m sharing this memory is so we can reapply this tactic to the worth of an athlete partnership. Slap yourself twice and say it’s not all about the followers – then go to sleep.

Now that your cheeks are a little red and the message has sunk in, let’s continue. The unfortunate reality is – you don’t know what you don’t know. This is applicable to everyone in the sports world and not just athletes, which is why the need to know your worth is the ultimate priority. If you, or your team, aren’t sure what your assets are worth then you’ll be lost when company x offers you $50k. Sure, that’s a good chunk of change but is it fair value?

Here are some real numbers that I’ve tracked on Instagram: one account had 30k followers while another had 3k followers. The account with 30k followers made a post and received 100 likes whilst the 3k account made a post and received 1.5k likes. With that, the respected social values for each are as follows: the 30k account’s post was worth about $90, while the 3k account’s post was worth $1.4k.

Now from experience, I know a lot of brands would’ve cut initial interest-based off followers. On many occasions, I have brands’ first responses to my emails be “how many followers do they have?”, or “fill out this form” – which essentially just asked for the number of followers. But since we know our athletes’ brands and their respective metrics which formulate their worth, we’re confident enough to question these statements. This keeps potential partners within our funnel rather than exiting at an earlier stage due to our sports marketing expertise.

To conclude, to be like Cuba Gooding Jr. in Jerry McGuire and start saying “show me the money”, you must know how much money that’ll be. If you’re an athlete, agent, brand, or even professional team looking to learn more – book an appointment with us at white whale mktg.

Published: January 24, 2022 - Issue 23 of The Sport Marketeer