Game, Set, Cash: How Do Badminton Players Make Money?
Some say it’s classless, but we need to talk about money.
As much as we want to make badminton popular and attractive to more people, especially parents and young people, we need numbers on our side. Specifically, we need numbers that can be measured in dollars.
It’s no secret that professional sport is highly lucrative. According to Sportico, the 100 highest-earning athletes in the world earned between $126.9M (LeBron James) and $29.6M (Andrew Wiggins) in 2022. Ten sports feature on the list. Badminton is not one of them.
Is badminton even remotely close to being on that list?
Not really.
So, does that mean a badminton career is simply not worth it?
Again, not really. Let’s get into it!
How Do Players Make Money?
From the game itself, players have three main sources of income.
- Prize Money
- Sponsorships
- Salaries (from national federations or club contracts)
The amount one can make from each of these channels depends heavily on where they rank, where they come from, and what discipline(s) they specialize in. More on that soon…
As a rule of thumb, doubles players generally earn less than singles players, and players outside the top 100 tend to make virtually nothing. On the bright side, the BWF’s prize distribution system does not uphold a gender pay gap.
How Much Money Can Players Make?
The numbers do vary a lot, so let’s break this down into four brackets:
- Rank #51–100
- Rank #33–50
- Rank #11–32
- Rank #1–10
As a quick note, although #32 does appear to be an awkward cutoff, it should be noted that BWF World Tour events only have 32 entrants in main draws. As such, being in the Top 32 more or less guarantees you access to all major BWF events, and thus access to more prize money. We’ll hold discussion over whether this is a good system for another day…
I should also mention that I am giving figures for singles players. Across all brackets, doubles players earn less. Between ranks #33–100, the average difference between singles and doubles earnings is a couple of thousand. Beyond that, it can differ up to a factor of two.
For players ranked #51–100, the average prize money across disciplines in 2022 was $2,053. There’s no two ways about it. This is a very low number for an elite athlete. As such, players at this level will need to hold part-time jobs and start side hustles, especially as sponsorships are hard to come by. Depending on what job one takes, non-badminton work can add up to $20,000 annually. On top of this, players would need to look for league contracts, firstly to generate income, and secondly to gain valuable game experience. Typically, for players at this level, clubs will pay $300–500 per match, amounting to $3600 to $6000 extra per year — 12 is a typical number of annual matches for a league player. In total, then, players in the #51–100 bracket (assuming they stay in that bracket the whole year) can expect somewhere between $5600 and $28000 annually.
For players ranked #33–50, the average prize money across disciplines in 2022 was $8,159. Again, despite the objectively impressive feat of being in the 50 best players of one of the world’s most played sports, players in this bracket are not immune to financial insecurity. This point is perfectly illustrated by Greg Mairs and Jenny Moore, the beloved duo behind Badminton Insight (effectively a side-hustle, but a wonderful one at that — they helped immensely with prepping this piece!). They are consistently in the #31–40 bracket, yet they made just $3,000 each in prize money in 2022. So, in a similar fashion to #51–100 players, they supplant their incomes using the same methods. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say that part-time jobs, side hustles, and sponsorships bring in up to $20,000. It’s not impossible for players in this bracket to get sponsorships, but that is hugely dependent on an individual’s marketability. While marketability is definitely nebulous, skill is not, and clubs recognize that. Players should expect anywhere between $400–1,300 per match, meaning an additional $4,800–15,600 annually. All in all, this comes out to a yearly income range of roughly $12,900-$43,800.
Moving on, for players in the Top 32 but outside the Top 10, the average prize money across disciplines in 2022 was $25,275. With this salary, a part time job is most likely not needed, so let’s remove that from consideration. Instead, players in this bracket tend to get extra income from league contracts and sponsorship deals. The former can net around $4,800-$16,000 annually (at a rate of $600-$2,000 for 8 matches), and the latter can range anywhere from $4,000 to over $50,000. In this category and the next, there is a LOT of fluctuation, so estimation becomes way more imprecise. For example, despite being #28 at the time, Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu managed to earn $61,000 from a three-week stint in India’s PBL. Factoring in the possibility of these extreme cases, players in this bracket can earn anywhere between $34,000 and $152,000 annually.
Finally, we have the Top 10 — the best of the best. At this level, the amount of fluctuation is insane, especially if you have players dominating fields and thus copiously out-earning their rivals — in 2022, Viktor Axelsen earned 4x the amount of the next-highest earning men’s singles player, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting ($400k vs $100k). When you’re among the favorites heading into all the big-money events, you can very feasibly land six figure sums from prize money alone, perhaps entering seven figure territory with lucrative sponsorships and club deals. Truly, the sky’s the limit. Just ask P.V. Sindhu, who consistently earns over $5M annually, placing her comfortably among Forbes’ highest-paid female athletes.
How Much Do Players (Actually) Make?
Up until now, we have looked at the financials from only one perspective: income. As with any job or lifestyle, there are taxes and expenses to consider.
The table is pretty self-explanatory, but what is interesting are the yellow areas. Generally speaking, for league players, clubs should cover travel, accommodation, and food costs, regardless of ranking. Where the true uncertainty lies has to do with the national federation one is tied to. Badminton is a very nationalized sport, comprised of national teams as opposed to a more individualized approach like in tennis. For more wealthy federations like Indonesia or China, all the questions marks become green ticks. Players may even receive a base salary or stipend on top of that. In China’s case, players’ living costs are 100% subsidized. However, in these cases, it is common for federations to recoup a percentage of prize money. Still, being from a more endowed federation clearly confers lots of financial benefits, namely having to worry less about day-to-day expenses. To give the example of Greg and Jenny of Badminton Insight (both representing England), their 2022 expenses came out to around $21,000, which is not ideal considering their aforementioned prize money.
With these concerns, it’s no wonder that a lot of non-Asian federations are severely underrepresented at the highest level. Their players simply can’t afford to compete! And when those players can’t compete, the money will only keep flowing to the same set of players.
One last point about federations, another factor to consider is their stance on sponsorships. It invariably varies by case, but there have been several high-profile stories of federations refusing to let players work with certain sponsors. In some instances, it has led to players going independent (i.e., breaking from their national federation and assuming full responsibility for their own management, training, and finances).
What Comes Next?
Professional badminton players tend not to play past their late 30s. Many retire before then. Regardless of what the reasons for retirement are, the fact remains that playing careers don’t last forever. And unless you’re in the Lee Chong Wei or P.V. Sindhu echelon of success and prominence, you will need another job.
Assuming the goal is to remain within the sport, the most natural job progression is to become a badminton coach. Again, depending on the level of coaching and the location of coaching, this number can vary a lot. In the U.S., coaches typically earn $28,000 to $43,000 annually.
How Does This Compare With Other Sports?
To be brutally honest, not favorably. And I can sum this up with one fairly damning comparison:
Finishing in the top 32 of the All England Open — “The Wimbledon of Badminton” — earns you $1,200. In the Wimbledon of tennis, finishing in the final 32 earns you $147,600. That’s over double the prize money one gets for winning the All England. $147,600 lands you in badminton’s top ten earners for 2022.
To be fair to tennis, though, main draws often go up to 128, meaning that reaching the final 32 or ranking in the top 32 is much more of an achievement.
That said, it’s not all doom and gloom. Badminton’s earning potential has risen in recent times. To its credit, the BWF was able to add to the prize money across all World Tour events in 2023. At the high end, the total purse for the BWF World Tour Finals is $2M. At the lower end, the total purse for Super 100 events is $120,000. Sure, it’s not tennis money, but it is an improvement.
What Does This Mean?
In its current state, badminton does not provide as much money for as many players as other sports do. In other words, if you want to make a decent living, the only way is to get really, really good. Sure, that principle applies to every other sport, but with badminton it is even more salient that being amazing sometimes isn’t enough. You need to be a world-beater. And that can be daunting, limiting, and ultimately a turn-off for genuinely talented players who just weren’t born in the right place.
Which is precisely why we need to keep promoting and supporting professional badminton so that it can become more popular, more recognized, and thus more attractive as an investment prospect for sponsors, brands, and governments that can make badminton a livable job (and an even more vibrant and competitive sport) for more people worldwide!
