SportsPro and NorthStar Solutions Group’s expansive methodology assessed hundreds of global athletes across three key scoring pillars: Brand Strength, Total Addressable Market, and Economics.
Once again sophisticated qualitative research was integrated with quantitative marketability measurements, while comprehensive mathematical and statistical formulas from multiple data sources were then applied to determine the final rankings according to each athlete’s Total Marketability Score.
Read on to find out more or watch our short video explainer.
What does 'Marketability Score' mean?
Athletes are ranked according to their ‘Marketability Score’, which is split into three distinct scoring components: Brand Strength, Total Addressable Market, and Economics. These weighted scores have been added together to generate an overall Marketability Score out of 100, with each athlete assigned a proportionate score in relation to the top performer for each metric.
Brand Strength, which carries a maximum score of 35, is determined by individual factors such as authenticity, risk and reputation, in-sport performance, presentation, momentum, and each athlete’s purpose, mission and values (PMV).
Total Addressable Market, with a maximum score of 35, encompasses factors such as overall reach, attention growth, social sentiment, audience engagement, and sponsor, sport and team awareness.
Meanwhile Economics, which carries a maximum score of 30, incorporates an athlete’s market value and estimated worth, their public support for environmental causes, and the extent to which they generate social and community benefits through their actions, influence and engagement.
See our example athlete, Kylian Mbappé, and how the scores breakdown:
How is the 50 Most Marketable Athletes list generated?
The evaluation model behind SportsPro’s 50 Most Marketable Athletes blends qualitative research with quantitative metrics to determine the final ranking.
SportsPro and NorthStar’s methodology comprised three main assessment stages.
First, the entire sports ecosystem was mapped out and narrowed down to 174 sports categories, out of which we derived a total universe of 1,006 athletes for further analysis (compared to a list of 993 athletes in 2023).
To be considered eligible for this year’s list, an athlete must have been active during the evaluation period 1st September 2023 to 1st September 2024. Upon applying layers of qualitative and quantitative analytics on the full universe of athletes, we whittled down the final list to 150 global athletes that were active during the evaluation period.
We then applied 16 qualitative and quantitative drivers to each of the 150 athletes. Each driver was weighted and comprised of comprehensive mathematical and statistical formulas pulling from multiple primary and secondary data sources.
All 16 weighted drivers rolled up into three weighted scoring pillars, the sum of which equals an athlete’s Total Marketability Score (out of 100), which determined the final rankings.
