Whether you love or hate him, there are not many people that do not know the name LeBron James. He has been one of the richest athletes of all time and at 37 years old, he was listed by Forbes as the second-highest paid athlete in the world and the richest American athlete during the previous 12 months. Of course, everyone knows how James has been able to accumulate his wealth on the court and his contract figures are very public, but what made him so much money off the court?
UFC 276 odds were very juicy and you could have made a lot of money if you bet on them and maybe got a tiny step closer to LeBron James’ $80 million away from the court in a year.
SpringHill
Having a production company that is able to cover different streams of content is definitely going to help in an age where people want to digest information in all different ways. Four major brands fall under SpringHill: Uninterrupted, Kneading Dough, More Than, and The Shop. Back in October 2021, James sold a significant minority stake of the company to multiple groups including Fenway Sports Group and Nike.
SpringHill decided to move LeBron’s talk show, The Shop, from HBO to YouTube so the revenue drawing from the videos themselves will not be disclosed with the CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions). However, in less than a month, their latest episode drew over 130,000 views. That means they can double dip as they have a deal with YouTube and get paid some revenue from the show as well.
That is not to mention that he starred in Space Jam: A New Legacy, which was also under the SpringHill banner as well. However, that does not mean only movies starring himself are what they produce as they have also produced the hit Netflix movie “Hustle” as well as “The Playbook”, a series in which legendary coaches throughout sports history discuss things to succeed in both life and the game.
Various Endorsements
This is going to be tough to do each one, so we will combine all of his endorsements into one single category. As of this writing, he has endorsements with Crypto.com, Tonal and StatusPRO, Coca-Cola, Beats by Dre, Blaze Pizza, 2K Sports, and Nike to name a few major ones.
While the terms of each endorsement deal are not disclosed to the public, the ability to land some of the giants in each sector of the market is definitely massive. He has done everything from appear in commercials for endorsements to being a spokesman to investing some money and everything in between.
Liverpool F.C.
It is very common for wealthy athletes to expand their portfolio into different sports and get a minority ownership claim of a team in a different sport than their own. That is exactly what LeBron James did back in 2011 as he bought a two percent stake in Liverpool F.C, one of the most notable teams in England’s Premier League.
Since he bought a stake in the franchise from the Fenway Sports Group, the team has won the Premier League and also played in the Champions League six different times. That success has really made his investment look even better as it is netting him millions of dollars every year as well.
Conclusion
Some people complain about the amount of money superstar athletes make on the field, but LeBron James has figured out a way to continue growing his wealth by what he does when he is not checking in to get on the court. He has surrounded himself around some incredible businessmen to continue growing his money off the court to the point where he can become a billionaire very soon in terms of his net worth due to what he is making away from the basketball court and get to the point where purchasing a NBA franchise will not be a dream and instead a reality.