From Tyson Fury’s £19m payday to Emma Raducanu’s Nike windfall, which SPOTY star has the biggest fortune?
THE six finalists of this year’s Sports Personality of the Year have been announced – and one star is hotly tipped to win.
After defying odds of 499/1 to win the US Open this summer, tennis starlet Emma Raducanu is the bookies’ favourite to take the BBC award.
But the 19-year-old faces competition from boxer Tyson Fury, Olympic stars Adam Peaty and Tom Daley, footballer Raheem Sterling and Paralympic legend Dame Sarah Storey.
Sadly for Lewis Hamilton, there’s no place on the list for last year’s winner after his Formula 1 heartache in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
Away from sport, however, who’s scoring millions in the bank, and who’s making a splash in sponsorship deals?
We take a look at the SPOTY rich list.
1. Tyson Fury – £70million
Last year, financial bible Forbes magazine put Tyson Fury’s worth at an eye-watering £43million, making him number 34 in the top 100 celebrity earners.
But that has now increased to an estimated £70million, thanks to the Gypsy King’s trilogy bout against Deontay Wilder. Defending his WBC heavyweight title in the final netted Tyson a whopping £19million.
The dad-of-six also landed £12million for one appearance at a WWE wrestling event in Saudi Arabia in 2019. He has also sold more than 200,000 copies of his autobiography, Behind the Mask.
In October, he splashed some of his winnings on the family’s new £1.7million coastal “castle” in Lancashire, upgrading from he and wife Paris’s previous £500,000 home in Morecambe.
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Tyson likes the finer things in life, like flying by private jet, lavish Las Vegas parties and designer clobber, once splurging £3,000 on matching Versace outfits for his five children.
During lockdown, he frittered £557 on pizza and steak takeaway, plus a £100 tip for the driver.
2. Raheem Sterling: £38million
Manchester City and England ace Raheem Sterling earns an utterly mind-blowing £300,000 a week – £15.6million a year
Earlier this year, The Sunday Times Rich List put the forward at having a net worth of £38million.
But after securing England’s place in the quarter finals by scoring one of the two goals against Germany in this summer’s Euros, marketing experts were going wild for the potential of “Brand Sterling.”
PR guru Mark Borkowski called the 26-year-old a “sponsor’s dream” who could follow in David Beckham’s footsteps, who has amassed a £380million wealth with wife Victoria.
Raheem, who has a boot deal with New Balance, lives in a five-bed mansion in Cheshire with his fiancee Paige Milian and their two young sons.
In 2019, he paid £1million for an entire road of houses in Stockport, Cheshire, for property developer Paige to work on.
3. Emma Raducanu – £4million
Bookies reckon Emma Raducanu is the clear favourite to take the trophy this year.
Her rise from unknown teenager and Wimbledon wild card to US Open winner was probably the most astonishing moment in sport this year.
Prior to Wimbledon, the south Londoner was ranked outside the top 300 tennis players in the world.
She has scooped £1.8million in prize money at the US Open alone.
Add to that a raft of lucrative endorsements and experts estimate her net worth to be £4million.
Her winning smile and bubbly personality have won her a contract with Evian water, while there’s also a deal with Tiffany jewellery and sports brands Nike and Wilson – surprisingly worth just £100,000-a-year combined.
Emma is reportedly managed by superagents Chris Helliar and Max Eisenbud, the pair who helped fellow tennis beauty Maria Sharapova amass an astonishing £234 million fortune.
4. Adam Peaty: £3.5million
Swimming champ Adam Peaty hasn’t just made waves in the pool – this autumn, he showed off his land skills by competing in Strictly Come Dancing.
The 26-year-old dad-of-one wouldn’t have earned a fortune from the BBC One entertainment show, which is rumoured to be around £25,000 per contestant.
His worth could be around £3.5million.
Certainly after diving into the record books twice at the Rio games in 2016, and defending his 100m breaststroke title, he was expected to land £2million in deals.
Like all athletes, the real money comes from sponsorships.
Adam also works as a coach and runs his own business, Adam Peaty Sports Clinic, to coach the Olympians of the future.
And he can net a pretty penny from his Instagram posts. A recent study revealed Adam, who has 594,000 followers, can command nearly £1,000 per sponsored post.
5. Tom Daley: £2.7million
At the Tokyo Olympics, held this summer, Tom Daley finally achieved his ambition of winning gold – 13 years after his first Games.
And we couldn’t have been more delighted for the poster boy who first came to our attention at the Beijing games in China in 2008, when he was just 14.
We had watched him come through the tragedy of losing his dad to a brain tumour, falling in love and becoming a dad.
So to win gold in the pool in the 10m synchro, with his partner, I’m a Celebrity star Matty Lee, was the perfect ending.
Out of the pool, Tom had built a £2.7million fortune, but that is expected to double after his Tokyo success.
His accounts show he earned £500,000 last year, and has banked deals with corporate giants such as Adidas, Argo and Etihad Airways.
6. Sarah Storey: Unknown
Sarah Storey stormed into the record books this summer when she won her 17th Olympic gold, establishing her firmly as the most successful British female Paralympian of all time.
In 2019, she partnered with the car company Skoda to launch a cycling academy.
She also earns an income as a guest speaker at corporate events.
The 44-year-old mum-of-two started out as a Paralympics GB swimmer before moving into cycling and previously told the Telegraph there were more sponsorship deals available for the latter.
“I think people often assume sponsorship is all about being paid lots of money to use a product but, in reality, there are very few athletes, especially Paralympic athletes, who have these deals,” she said.
“Receiving products, such as recovery drinks or energy drinks, or even just being a sponsored athlete with a big discount, makes a big difference to the budgeting side of sport.”