Sports figures (players and coaches) cannot be the athlete/coach and still be the manager all by themselves. Therefore, they leave all these worries to a sports manager to handle.
Your favorite athlete has someone who is behind the scenes making the job easier. So, sports agents deserve all the praises they get since they do so much to make life easy for our coaches and athletes.
For this blog post, we’ll streamline it to the highest-paid sports agents and their salaries.
Who Is A Sports Agent?
A sports agent is a legal representative who helps to represent and manage sports players and their coaches.
Their work includes:
- Recruiting new players.
- Negotiating contracts and employment.
- Signing endorsement deals and sponsorships.
- Public relations; social media awareness.
That’s such a job description if you ask me.
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Is Being A Sports Agent A Lucrative Career?
Absolutely. As long as sports agents put in the work, they’re likely to have a gratifying and fulfilling career.
How do sports agents make money?
The amount of money that a sports agent makes depends on the amount the athlete makes as well.
A sports agent makes money through an athlete’s playing contracts and endorsement deals, which are about 3–4 percent and 10–20 percent, respectively.
How Much Do Sports Agents Make?
In 2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that an average sports agent makes about $89,590 yearly which has changed little ever since.
Again, the price may vary among leagues, players, and other factors. This means the answer to “How much do sports agents make?” depends on several factors.
While some make more than the figure above, others make slightly less than the given figure.
What Is The Average Salary Of A Sports Agent?
A sports agent’s salary is $89,590 annually. However, this figure is subject to a lot of other factors. A sports agent with more years will earn more than one with less.
Certification, and personal training, alongside other cognitive abilities, can significantly influence a sports agent’s salary.
Who Are The Top Sports Agents?
According to Forbes, Scott Brass is the No. 1 sports agent. He has negotiated a 3.2 billion in Boras.
This undoubtedly established him as the world’s top sports agent. Other top sports agents in this list include Bryce Hyper, Gerrit Cole, Jonathan Bernett, etc.
How To Become One Of The Highest Paid Sports Agents.
This is the route to becoming the highest-paid sports agent.
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It would be appropriate to get a degree related to sports, law, business, or finance.
Personally, I would recommend getting a degree in sports management as other business courses are encapsulated in it.
2. Get a more professional degree:
The sports industry is competitive and to get ahead of many people who want the same position as you, there is the need to get more professional degrees to help you stand out.
3. Gather industry experience:
After these degrees, it is expected that aspiring sports agents should go for internship programs where they’ll have hands-on experience in the sports industry.
It is wise that an intern should prove himself worthy to enable more opportunities and retention too.
4. Continue to apply for jobs and get hired. It’s that easy.
Right now, we’re about to move to the juiciest part of this blog post, which is to review the highest-paid sports agents in the world.
In no particular order, below are twenty of them.
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20 Highest Paid Sports Agents In The World.
1. Scott Boras:
Scott is inarguably the highest-paid sports agent in the world. Competitors and the management of professional teams widely feared him.
Scott is a lawyer with $2 billion worth of contracts to his name. Forbes has named Boras the richest sports agent in the world.
He manages mostly baseball players, and some of them are Stephen Strasburg, Chris Davis, and Prince Fielder.
Boras earns over $108M a year in commission.
2. Constantin Dumitrascu:
Going at number 2, Dumitrascu earns an annual commission of $107M.
The total value of his player contracts is a little over $1B, which is over half of what Scott Boras makes.
Dumitrascu currently has 87 client contracts to manage which include Douglas Costa, Nemanja Matic, Kante N’Golo, Dimitri Payet, Phillipe Coutinho, and Edinson Cavan.
He also works for Mondial sports management.
3. Jonathan Barnett:
Barnett is the executive chairperson of ICM Stellar Sports and a soccer agent who manages over 300 clients, making him one of the top agents in the world.
Barnett has sealed up to $1.4B contracts on all his clients and earned a commission of $142.3M.
Some clients he manages are Saul Niguez and Mazi Gomez.
4. Jay Z:
When Jay Z is not releasing an album or running his business empire, one thing he does is manage athletes.
Jay Z manages about 42 athletes in different sports, some of whom include Yoenis Cespedes, Kyrie Irving, and Robinson Cano.
His total net worth is estimated to be $1B, with $28.7M being his commission for being a sports agent.
He is one of the Highest Paid Sports Agents.
5. Rich Paul:
Rich Paul is the founder of Klutch sports agency and majors in basketball. Some of the players he has negotiated for include John Wall, LeBron James, and Ben Simmons.
These are just three names out of twenty-three clients that Rich Paul negotiates for.
Paul has negotiated up to $1.3B in his career, with his commissions totaling $46M.
6. Mino Raiola:
Mino Raiola is a soccer sports agent who is worth $84M in agency commissions.
In his career as an agent, Raiola has negotiated up to $847M.
Some of his clients include Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marco Verratti, Paul Pogba, and Erling Haaland.
Raiola currently has a client base of about 77 people.
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7. Jeff Schwartz:
Jeff Schwartz is the founder and president of Excel Sports Management, specializing in bidding contracts for basketball players.
Over the years, Jeff has negotiated more than $1.8B contracts and has made up to $73M in commissions.
Some of his clients are Kevin Love, Brandon Ingram, Kemba Walker, and Nikola Jokic.
8. Casey Close:
Casey Close has made a name for himself as one of the highest-paid sports agents in the world with a $63M profit from contracts bid.
Close is a baseball agent, and his client list includes Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, and Paul Gold Schmidt.
9. Jorge Mendes:
Mendes manages athletes like Christiano Ronaldo, James Rodriguez, Jaoa Almeida, Charles Leclerc, Patricia Mamona, and Feclenco Morias.
He’s highly influential and earns around $88M yearly.
The contract value of his players is a little over $568M.
He is one of the Highest Paid Sports Agents.
10. Tom Condon:
In 2006, sports news named Condon, the most potent agent in American football.
He negotiates for J.J. Watt, Calais Campbell, Peyton Manning, AJ Green, Luke Keuchly, and Richard Sherman.
The contract value for his players is about $494M, while Condon earns $80M commission annually.
11. Sam and Seth Levinson:
Sam and Seth are brothers at ACES Inc, a baseball firm.
Many say that their success can be attributed to the fact that they’re a team but what many don’t know is, individually, these men have done remarkable things as well.
Each of them manages about 60 clients, and some of them include David Wright, Scott Rolen, Allen Craig, and others. Over $500M contract has been signed under the watch of these brothers.
Their total earnings in commission for each of them is about $67M.
12. Joel Wolfe:
Wolfe established himself as one of the most potent agents in the world’s history by negotiating one of the largest contracts in history, Giancarlo Stanton’s 13-year, $325 million deal with the Miami Marlins.
In total, Wolfe has sealed $1 billion in deals in his career, with 47 clients to his credit. Wolfe negotiates for clients such as Yu Dan and Nolan Arenado and has earned $52M in commission.
13. Dan Lozano:
Lozano is considered one of the most mysterious businesses, with a 24-man-client base and a contract worth $895.3 million.
These deals have earned him a commission of $44.2M. This baseball agent is associated with the MVP sports group with clients such as Manny Machado, Albert Pujols, and Joey Votto.
14. Todd France:
Todd is a football sports agent for clients like Grady Jarett, Fletcher Cox, and Aaron Donald.
He has negotiated up to $1.5B deals and has a commission of $44M to his name.
15. Adam Katz:
Katz is a baseball agent with a client base of 41 sports stars, including Kenley Jansen, Jeff Samardzija, and Yasmani Grandal.
Over the years, Katz has been able to bid contracts worth $450M, with $23M being his commission earnings.
16. Austin Brown:
Austin Brown is the co-head of the CAA Sports basketball division and has a background in business and law.
His earnings as a sports agent is about $26M with a contract dealing of $657M and a $2.6B negotiation in free-agent deals.
Some of his clients include D’Angelo Russell, Zion Williamson, and Karl-Anthony Towns.
17. Frank Trimboli:
Frank Trimboli is the co-founder of Base Soccer before it was acquired by CCA in 2019. Trimboli’s career as a soccer sports agent has earned him about $29 million, with over $296 million in negotiations.
He represents over 450 clients, and some of them include Dele Alli, James Maddison, Kyle Walker, Son Heung-Min, and Raphael Varane.
18. Mark Pieper:
Mark Pieper is one of baseball’s most established agents and is widely known for his contributions to the Independent Sports and Entertainment agency.
Over the years, Pieper has negotiated for 65 clients with a contract of $462M and a $32M commission earnings.
Some of his clients include Patrick Corbin, Jordan Zimmermann, and Justin Verlander.
19. Jeff Berry:
Jeff is the co-head of the CAA Sports baseball agency and has negotiated record-setting deals worth $607 million for clients such as Jacob deGrom, Will Myers, and Buster Posey.
He has earned about $36M from these contract deals.
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20. Bouna Ndiaye:
Ndiaye is a French basketball agent that has defied all odds. His career as an agent proves that a person can have an incredibly small client base and still make it big in this business.
Ndiaye has only 7 clients but has negotiated more than $400 million in contracts.
Among his clients are Evan Fournier, Rudy Gobert, and Nicola Batum.
He has earned $16M so far. In addition, he is one of the Highest Paid Sports Agents.
FAQs on 20 Highest Paid Sports Agents
It is unprofessional for NBA/NFL agents to gamble on their own. And since most agents want to protect their public image and secure more clients, it is very rare to find them doing so.
Not all sports agents are lawyers, and you do not need a law degree to become a sports agent.
However, many agents are attorneys, as it saves an athlete the stress of hiring an attorney to review the terms of the contract and also a sports agent to promote their career.
– Hendrick brothers.
– Chris Weinke
– Red Grange
In 2006, the Uniform Athlete Agents Act (UAAA) was created by the National Conference of Commissioners on Consistent State Laws.
This was created to provide a national standard for sports agents and student-athlete interaction, which each state could choose to enact.
This regulation has been modified over the years.
A sports agent is expected to be truthful and honest in his dealings with clients, but unfortunately, such is not the case every time, as there are agents who have allowed greed to take over them.
Conclusion:
This article has explained the highest-paid Sports Agents.
Which of the above do you find more exciting, the paycheck or the topic at hand? Kindly let me know in the comment section below, and I’ll be the happiest to read your thoughts.
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