METHODOLOGY
The 2025 edition of SportsPro's 50 Most Marketable Athletes raises the bar with a proven assessment model and two new innovations that turn the rankings into action.
Employing a proprietary evaluation methodology devised in partnership with NorthStar Solutions Group, we score every athlete on a 100‑point Total Marketability Score built from three weighted scoring pillars: Brand Strength (35), Total Addressable Market (35), and Economics (30).
New for this year, our cultural foresight‑driven momentum boosts at the pillar level capture where attention is accelerating, while an Athlete Persona Model translates scores into sponsor fit and portfolio design.
The result is a list that’s both credible and usable – a sharper playbook for selection, activation, and measurable outcomes.
What is the Total Marketability Score?
A normalised score out of 100 that reflects an athlete’s commercial resonance and future potential. Spanning three scoring pillars and 14 drivers in total (ten quantitative and four qualitative), it combines:
BRAND STRENGTH
Maximum score: 35
In‑sport performance (15%)
Authenticity (40%)
Risk & reputation (10%)
Presentation (10%)
Purpose, mission and values (25%)
+
TOTAL ADRESSABLE MARKET
Maximum score: 35
Overall reach (30%)
Audience engagement (30%)
Trending brand buzz (20%)
Sentiment & trust (10%)
Sponsor awareness (5%)
Sport/team awareness (5%)
+
ECONOMICS
Maximum score: 30
Financial value/ROI (20%)
Social ROO (50%)
Environmental ROO (30%)
All told, we mapped a universe of 174 sports and assembled 1,001 athletes for consideration. To be eligible, athletes must have been active between 1st September 2024 and 1st September 2025. Layered qualitative and quantitative screening then whittled the list down to the Top 150 for full scoring.
From there, momentum boosts were applied across the three pillars based on the following factors:
Brand Momentum: Cultural resonance and brand‑adjacent acceleration signals
TAM Momentum: Attention velocity and audience expansion signals
Economic Momentum: Commercial traction, conversion, and value acceleration signals
Introducing cultural foresight
Cultural foresight identifies fast‑rising themes and whitespace to understand where attention is breaking out next.
As part of this year’s 50MM evaluation, NorthStar partnered with Nichefire, a cultural listening platform that analyses conversations and trends, to surface timely, validated cultural conversations across communities and consumer segments between May and August 2025.
Our process was as follows:
Topic monitoring setup
We configured custom topic clusters in NicheFire covering consumer, brand, and fan culture.
Trending topic identification
Over roughly three months we isolated the top five trending topics via attention shifts, sentiment, and cultural velocity.
Athlete engagement analysis
As part of our Brand Strength Momentum scoring we assessed which athletes were posting about, participating in, or publicly associated with those topics (social posts, interviews, appearances, collaborations, activism, etc).
Scoring impact
Verified engagement with any of the identified foresight topics triggered a +10% adjustment to the Economic Momentum component. This ensures momentum reflects proactive cultural relevance, not just volume.
Guardrails
Application is capped, time‑aware, and analyst‑reviewed; as such, the boost is confined to Economic Momentum this cycle.
Our Athlete Persona Model explained
We began by analysing all previous 50MM lists and saw recurring, differentiated archetypes spanning career stages with distinct marketability strengths and gaps. That reality makes a one‑size‑fits‑all sponsorship model ineffective.
Drawing on NorthStar’s background in financial planning/investment strategy, we linked athlete selection to the same principles advisors use to build portfolios – aligning allocations to goals, purpose, time horizon, and risk tolerance – and mapped athlete types to familiar investment vehicles (blue‑chips, growth, yield, small‑cap, etc.).
Click below to see how it works:
Inputs
Inputs
Scoring & classification
Scoring & classification
OUTPUTS
Outputs
What it enables for sponsors
Thanks to our Athlete Persona Model, the 2025 edition of SportsPro’s 50 Most Marketable Athletes introduces a clearer, more rigorous way to determine marketability, enabling brand marketers to make smarter sponsorship decisions in the following ways:
1. Construct a target portfolio of personas matched to brand objectives
2. Assess current allocation vs. target to expose gaps
3. Focus sourcing on best‑fit athletes in gap personas
4. Inform contract and incentive structures by archetype to maximise ROI and manage risk
Learn more
About NorthStar
NorthStar Solutions Group
NorthStar Solutions Group is a boutique strategy realisation firm that helps organisations turn strategy into results. Through its Strategy Realisation Framework, NorthStar synergises data, process, technology, and people, and employs expert strategy execution and organisational change management to deliver measurable, lasting transformation.
Founded by former US Army officers, NorthStar brings over 20 years of experience working across industries and functions to the sports industry, helping brands, leagues, and athletes translate insight into action through data-driven strategy execution and marketability growth. As the methodology and insights partner behind SportsPro’s 50 Most Marketable Athletes, NorthStar integrates diverse data sources and technologies into a bespoke, analytics-driven product – combining analytical rigour with human understanding to redefine how value is measured and realised in sports marketing.
Certified SDVOSB by the United States Veterans Administration, Disability:IN, and NaVOBA.
About SportsPro
SportsPro
- Your next insight: We’re one of the most trusted and consumed international sports business publishers, and simultaneously one of the largest platforms for those looking to hear and learn from thought leaders.
- Your next connection: SportsPro reaches more people, more often, than anyone else in the international sports industry. Whether consuming our content or engaging with the communities we curate, SportsPro’s audience represents a true melting pot of business leaders and decision makers, all of whom rely on SportsPro to build meaningful relationships and better navigate the industry.
- Your next innovation: From AI and streaming to e-commerce, Web3 and immersive experiences, SportsPro is uniquely positioned to bring technology and business closer together to advance the sports industry.