Moneyball: Most enduring and controversial endorsement deals in sporting history

Sports is about guts and glory but it is also about the big bucks. With Dream 11 snapping up IPL 2020 title sponsorship for Rs 220 crore after Vivo backed out, we take a look at some of the biggest, most enduring and controversial endorsement deals in sporting history.

Top five football club sponsorship deals

1) €190mn per year
Real Madrid (€120mn from Adidas, €70mn from Emirates)
2) €161mn per year
Manchester United (€86.9mn from Adidas, €74.1mn from Chevrolet)
3) €160mn per year
FC Barcelona (€105mn from Nike, €55mn from Rakuten)
4) €135mn per year
Paris Saint-Germain (€75mn from Nike, €60mn from Accor Live Limitless)
5) €127.4mn per year
Manchester City (€75.3mn from Puma, €52.1mn from Etihad)

Athlete: Cristiano Ronaldo
Sport: Football
Brand: Nike
The football star has a lifetime endorsement deal with Nike estimated to exceed $1 bn (apart from being among the highest-paid athletes in the world). It makes him among the richest athletes sponsored by Nike.

Sport: Tennis
Brand: Uniqlo
Backed by Nike for years, Federer switched to Uniqlo in 2018, which is estimated to net him $300 mn over 10 years. The Nike deal had earned him half of that.

Sport: Basketball
Brand: Nike
In 2015, NBA champion James entered into what was then a historic endorsement deal with Nike, according to which he would earn a minimum of $1 bn in his lifetime.

Major brands have also parted ways with athletes embroiled in controversies:

Maria Sharapova
Then the highest-paid female athlete in the world, Sharapova failed a drug test in 2016, because she took a substance she said she did not know was banned. With a two-year suspension, brands like Tag Heuer decided not to renew their deal with her. Nike, after initially cutting ties, changed course.

When Rooney made headlines after news broke about his extra marital affairs, Coca-Cola stopped using the football star in its Coke Zero ads. But after a string of other controversies, including an on-air rant, Coca-Cola dropped him altogether.

When the US anti-doping agency revealed that the seven-time Tour de France champion had taken banned substances, he earned a lifetime cycling ban. Eight of his 11 sponsors ended their contracts or announced deals would not be renewed in a single day.

An Olympic champion and double amputee, Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in 2013. The South African athlete, later convicted of murder, saw sponsors like Nike cut ties subsequently.

Virat Kohli - Puma
Rs.110 cr for 8 years

Rs. 50 cr for 4 years

Source: GiveMeSport, Forbes, Yahoo, Man of Many, The Guardian