Technology and media (8 of 8)

Sports and live events

About 7 minutes to read in full, or 1 minute for the short version belowFacts checked 30 September 2026

In one minute

Clubs, leagues, venues and concert promoters put on games, tournaments and shows, and earn money from broadcasters, sponsors and the fans who buy tickets.

The big idea: Sport and live events sell attention: media rights, sponsorship and tickets all grow with the size and passion of the audience. But the talent (players and artists) is scarce and results or star power drive revenue, so most extra money flows to the talent, and clubs and promoters keep thin margins. That is why football now caps squad costs as a share of revenue, and why the owners of rights, ticketing and sponsorship earn more than the teams.

One unit, in numbers: One European football club for one season: EUR 300 million comes in, and EUR 10 million (3.3%) is left after its own costs.What is left is the unit's contribution, before the costs of the whole company. See the worked example
Typical margin: About 0 to 5 percent operating margin for most European clubs and concert promoters; ticketing and sponsorship businesses earn much moreRoughly how much of every 100 of sales (or income) is left as profit after the running costs. More on margin
Capital intensity: MediumA fair amount of money is tied up, in things like stores, stock or equipment. More on capital intensity
The number to watch: Wage to revenue ratioPlayer and staff wages divided by revenue.

Ask this first in a case

Who are we: a league, a club, a venue, a promoter, a broadcaster or an investor?

Words used above (3)

Media rights:: The right to show matches or events on TV or streaming, sold for several seasons.
Wage to revenue ratio:: Wages divided by revenue.
Promoter:: The company that books artists, sells tickets and carries the risk of a show.

The industry's other words are explained in Words to know (10).

On this page (17 sections)

How money is made

Leagues sell media rights in packages for several seasons and share the money with clubs.
Clubs and events sell sponsorship: shirts, stadium names, official partners.
Fans pay for tickets, hospitality, food, drink and merchandise at the venue.
Clubs earn prize money from competitions and transfer fees when they sell players.
Promoters earn what is left of ticket sales after paying artists and venues, plus sponsorship and food and drink.
Ticketing platforms earn a fee on every ticket sold, which is steadier than putting on the show.

Worked example: one unit

Unit economics means the money in and out for one unit of the business. Start from the revenue, take away the unit's own costs, and what is left is its contribution. More on unit economics

The unit: One European football club for one season (illustrative, EUR million, from the lesson example). Illustrative, rounded figures.
Line	Amountin EUR millions	ShareShare of revenue
Revenue: media rights 150, commercial 90, matchday 60	EUR 300	100%
Minus Player and staff wages	EUR 195	65%
Minus Transfer amortization (fees spread over contract years)	EUR 45	15%
Minus Agent fees	EUR 5	1.7%
Minus Other running costs: stadium, staff, travel, youth academy	EUR 45	15%
What is left (contribution)	EUR 10	3.3%

Check: EUR 300 minus EUR 290 of costs leaves EUR 10 (in EUR millions).

So what: The club keeps EUR 10 million, about 3 percent of revenue, and its squad cost ratio of about 82 percent is above UEFA's 70 percent limit. The levers are commercial revenue (the stream the club controls most), wages on new contracts, and selling players it developed.

Key measures(8)

Key measures (also called KPIs, key performance indicators) are the numbers people in this industry track. Ask for the first one or two early in a case.

Wage to revenue ratio
Player and staff wages divided by revenue.
Typical: About 65 percent for Premier League clubs in 2024/25 (Deloitte); at least 91 percent in the English Championship in every season for a decade (Leonard Curtis Football Finance Report)[1]
Squad cost ratio
Wages, transfer amortization and agent fees divided by revenue.
Typical: Limited to 70 percent by UEFA from 2025/26 and to 85 percent by the Premier League from 2026/27[3]
Media rights per match
The rights fee divided by the matches covered, to compare leagues.
Typical: About INR 118 crore per IPL match for 2023 to 2027[5]
Commercial revenue
Sponsorship, merchandise, tours and other deals, the stream a club controls most.
Typical: About GBP 2.4 billion for Premier League clubs in 2024/25, three quarters of it at the six biggest clubs[1]
Fill rate
Tickets sold divided by seats available. Glossary: Fill rate
Spend per fan (per cap)
Money each fan spends at the venue on tickets, food, drink and merchandise.
Event days per year
How many days a venue is used; a football stadium may host only a few dozen games a year.
Promoter margin
What a promoter keeps from an event after the artist, venue and production.
Typical: About 3.3 percent adjusted operating margin in Live Nation's concerts business in 2025[9]

First questions to ask

When a case lands in this industry, these questions get you to the numbers that matter.

Who are we: a league, a club, a venue, a promoter, a broadcaster or an investor?
Which revenue stream is largest, and which ones do we control?
What share of revenue goes to wages or artist fees, and what limits apply?
How full are the venue and the calendar, and what does each fan spend?
What does the owner want: profit, growth in value, or influence and national goals?

Value chain: where the margin sits

The value chain is the steps a product or service passes through, from the first supplier to the customer. Each step below shows how much of the value it keeps. More on value chains

Step 1: Talent: players, coaches and artists
Fat margin
Athletes, artists and their agents
Premier League clubs spent a record GBP 4.4 billion on wages in 2024/25, about 65 percent of revenue.
Step 2: Rights owners: leagues, federations and event owners that own the competition
Fat margin
UEFA, FIFA, the Premier League, the BCCI (owner of the IPL), Formula 1
They sell media rights and central sponsorship and share them with clubs.
Step 3: Clubs and teams: field the team and sell tickets and sponsorship
Thin margin
Football clubs, IPL franchises, US teams
Premier League clubs made about GBP 263 million of operating profit on GBP 6.8 billion of revenue in 2024/25.
Step 4: Promoters: book artists and events and carry the ticket risk
Thin margin
Live Nation, AEG, regional promoters
Live Nation's concerts business earned an adjusted operating margin of about 3.3 percent in 2025.
Step 5: Venues: stadiums, arenas and festival sites
Margin varies
Clubs, cities, venue companies, promoters
High fixed cost; profit depends on the number of event days and spending per fan.
Step 6: Ticketing: sell tickets online and charge fees
Fat margin
Ticketmaster, other ticketing platforms, resale sites
Ticketmaster earned about USD 1.1 billion of adjusted operating income on USD 3.1 billion of revenue in 2025.
Step 7: Media: broadcasters and streamers pay for rights and sell subscriptions and advertising
Margin varies
Sky, TNT Sports, DAZN, beIN Sports, JioStar, ESPN, Amazon
Pay the most for live rights; profit depends on subscribers and advertising.
Step 8: Sponsors and fans: pay for visibility, tickets, subscriptions and merchandise
Margin varies
Brands, fans at home and at the venue

Profit pool: who keeps the money

Where in the value chain the profit ends up, which is often not where most of the sales are. More on profit pools

Most of the money goes to the talent and to the owners of scarce rights: top leagues, federations and star artists. Ticketing platforms and sponsorship sales keep high margins because they take a fee on events others put on. Clubs in open leagues and concert promoters keep thin margins, because they compete to buy the same talent.

Cost structure(4)

The main costs, each as a share of revenue (the money from sales).

Wages, English Championship clubs (every season from 2015/16 to 2024/25): At least 91 percent of revenue[7]
Wages, Premier League clubs (2024/25): About 65 percent of revenue[1]
Non-wage running costs, European top-division clubs (2024): About 36 percent of revenue, the highest share in 15 years[2]
Concert promotion: operating profit left after artists, venues and production: About 3 percent of revenue at Live Nation concerts (2025)[9]

Benchmarks(5)

Typical figures for the industry, to check a client's numbers against.

European football market (2024/25): Over EUR 40 billion, up about 6 percent[1]
Premier League clubs' revenue and operating profit (2024/25): About GBP 6.8 billion revenue, about GBP 263 million operating profit (about 4 percent)[1]
IPL income (2024/25, from BCCI accounts): About INR 12,005 crore, over 70 percent from media rights[6]
IPL business value (2026 estimate): About USD 20.6 billion[8]A bank's valuation estimate, not a sale price.
Live Nation sponsorship and advertising margin (2025): About 64 percent[9]

Typical cases(7)

Case prompts you might hear in this industry.

A Premier League club loses money every year. How do we fix it?
Should a Gulf state fund bid to host a major tournament?
An IPL team wants to double its revenue in five years. How?
A stadium owner wants more profit from a venue used 25 days a year.
Should a promoter launch a music festival in Southeast Asia?
How should a league price and package its next media rights cycle?
Should an investor buy a stake in a European football club?

Common traps(5)

Mistakes candidates make in this industry, and what to do instead.

Assuming extra revenue becomes profit, when clubs tend to spend it on the squad.
Forgetting transfer amortization, which spreads each fee over the contract years.
Ignoring that media rights are sold centrally, so one team controls only part of its income.
Treating a state-owned club or event like a normal business when the owner wants more than profit.
Taking a side on the politics or ethics of an owner instead of answering the business question.

What changed, 2024 to 2026(5)

Recent changes a case could turn on.

European football passed EUR 40 billion in 2024/25, but Premier League clubs made pre-tax losses of about GBP 948 million as transfer and financing costs rose.[1]
Spending rules tightened: UEFA's squad cost limit reached 70 percent in 2025/26, and Premier League clubs voted in November 2025 for an 85 percent limit from 2026/27.[4]
Gulf investment grew: FIFA confirmed Saudi Arabia as 2034 World Cup host in December 2024, and in April 2026 Kingdom Holding agreed to buy 70 percent of Al Hilal from the Public Investment Fund.[12]
Indian cricket became a global asset class: Royal Challengers Bengaluru was bought in 2026 at a reported value of about USD 1.78 billion, and IPL viewing shifted further to streaming and connected TVs.[8]
Ticketing faced the courts: in April 2026 a US jury found that Ticketmaster unlawfully kept a monopoly in ticketing for major concert venues; remedies were still to be decided.[10]

Players by region(6)

Well-known companies in each region. You do not need to learn them by heart; they help you picture the market.

Global: FIFA and UEFA (rights owners)
Live Nation and Ticketmaster
DAZN (streaming)
Formula 1
Europe: Premier League, LaLiga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1
Sky, TNT Sports, Canal+
CVC Capital Partners (investor in leagues)
Middle East: Saudi Pro League and clubs such as Al Hilal and Al Nassr
Public Investment Fund (Saudi Arabia)
Qatar Sports Investments (owner of Paris Saint-Germain)
beIN Sports
India: BCCI and the IPL
Women's Premier League
JioStar (media rights holder)
Indian Super League (football)
Southeast Asia: Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix
The Kallang (formerly Singapore Sports Hub)
National football leagues
United States: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS
ESPN, Amazon, Netflix
Live Nation and AEG (promoters)

Words to know(10)

Linked words have a fuller entry in the glossary.

Media rights: The right to show matches or events on TV or streaming, sold for several seasons.
Wage to revenue ratio: Wages divided by revenue.
Squad cost ratio: Wages, transfer amortization and agent fees divided by revenue.
Transfer amortization: A transfer fee spread as a cost over the years of the player's contract.
Promotion and relegation: Top clubs of a lower league move up and the bottom clubs move down each season.
Franchise league: A closed league with fixed teams owned by investors, such as the IPL or the NFL.
Salary cap: A limit on what a team may spend on player pay.
Promoter: The company that books artists, sells tickets and carries the risk of a show.
Per cap spend: What each fan spends at the venue.
Naming rights: A sponsor pays to put its name on a stadium or event.

Business model patterns

The ways of making money this industry follows. Spot the pattern in a new industry and you already know the first questions to ask.

Sources(13)

Facts checked on 30 September 2026. Worked examples are illustrative, shaped by these sources rather than one company's figures.

Go deeper and practise

Go deeper

The full lessons behind this brief, with sources and worked cases.

Practise it

Same pattern elsewhere

Industries that make money in a similar way. What you learned here carries over.