Forbes: The World's Most Valuable Sports Brands

In 2016, Forbes' most valuable brands are The Super Bowl (events), Roger Federer (athletes), New York Yankees (teams) and Nike (businesses).

Same as every year, Forbes published its list of the 40 most valuable brands, divided into four categories: businesses, events, athletes and teams.

The Forbes Fab 40 list quantifies the value of the top brands in sports, measuring how much the name of each brand -all by itself- contributes to their value or earnings.

In 2016, the most valuable brand in each of the four categories are the Super Bowl (US$ 630 million), Roger Federer (US$ 36 million), New York Yankees (US$ 660 million) and Nike (US$ 27 billion).

BUSINESS

Starting with the business category, Nike stays strong at the top, growing 3.8% from 2015. In second place is ESPN, which lost 2.9% to reach US$ 16.5 billion. The podium is completed by Adidas with US$ 7 billion and a 12.9% growth.

The UFC, which was acquired by WME/IMG this year, enters the list in seventh place with an added value of US$ 2 billion and an impressive 335% growth.

EVENTS

As far as events go, the Super Bowl is the clear leader of the list, growing 8.6% to reach a value of US$ 630 million. In second and third place stand the Summer Olympics (+5.2% - US$ 366 million) and the Winter Olympics (0% - US$ 285 million).

The FIFA World Cup was left out of the top 3, standing in 4th place with US$ 229 million.

ATHLETES

The list of individual performances is led by Swiss tennis pro Roger Federer, which despite losing 2.7% brand value, remains solid at the top with US$ 36 million. The star of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Lebron James, is second on the list with US$ 34 million, 26% more than last year.

Third place was given to pro golfer Phil Mickelson with US$ 28 million. Despite winning every medal at the Rio Olympics, running superstar Usain Bolt didn’t make it into Forbes' top 3 and placed fourth with US$ 25 million, growing 39% from last year.

TEAMS

And finally, in the teams category, the New York Yankees lead the list with a brand value of US$ 660 million, followed by the Dallas Cowboys with US$ 577 million and the LA Lakers with US$ 546 million.

Soccer took over the following three sports on the list, with Real Madrid (US$ 521 million), in fourth place; the Barcelona (US$ 509 million) in fifth place and the Manchester United (US$ 500 million) in sixth place.

The complete list of brands and values, here.

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