Everyone knows that badminton is not a particularly profitable sport, especially in Western countries, few media will report badminton events, TV commercials, movies, etc. do not see badminton players. A few years ago, Ai Yuke sent an interesting video, a man (of course not Chen Long) on the streets of the United States claimed to be the 2016 Rio Olympic Badminton Men's Singles Champion, and as a result, passers-by really believed him, and also took photos with him, which shows how niche badminton is in Europe and the United States.
So how do badminton players make money? Judging from most badminton players in the world, it is mainly through government/association funding, brand sponsorship, tournament prizes, brand endorsements, participation in professional leagues and side businesses.
1. Funded by the government or association
The success of Chinese badminton is largely due to the investment of the national system and the wisdom of the coaching team, which allows the Chinese Badminton Association to invest a lot of money in training facilities, staff and athletes, and the players basically only need to focus on badminton, without considering the trivial matters of food, clothing, housing and transportation.
Badminton teams such as Japan, Malaysia, and South Korea are basically funded by the state. Of course, not all badminton associations can get funding from the state, and not all badminton players will be supported by their national institutions, such as the English badminton team lost the financial support of the British Sports Bureau after the 2016 Rio Olympics, and the Indian Badminton Association will only fund the world's top 25 players.
2. Brand/corporate sponsorship
Most of the international badminton players belong to this category, and badminton brands such as Yonex, Wiktor, and Li Ning provide players with a full set of equipment and certain sponsorship fees. In return, the contestants will use the sponsor's equipment to participate in international competitions, while shooting some commercials for the sponsor and attending some promotional activities.
A large part of the top players such as Lin Dan, Li Zongwei, Sindhu, Sukamuyo/Fernadi rely on brand sponsorship, but sponsors generally require them to participate in at least as many races or win as many championships in a year.
Sukamujo revealed in June this year that sponsor Yonex set himself the goal of winning the men's doubles gold medal at the 2019 World Championships and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and Lin Dan signed a ten-year endorsement contract with Yonex in 2014. As for Synderhu, who has won the Olympic silver medal after the advertising endorsement brand sponsorship continues, with an annual income of nearly 50 million yuan, it is very rare to enter the 12th place in the Forbes Sports Rich Woman List.
3. Contest Prizes
Although badminton is not the richest sport in the world, the prize money of the BWF's events is basically increasing every year, and the prize money is linked to the performance, as long as it enters the first round of the main tournament.
Taking the 2018 Indonesia Open as an example, the total prize money is 1.25 million US dollars, the singles champion is 87,500 US dollars each, the doubles champion combination prize money is 92,500 US dollars, if the player travels in the 1/16 final round, he can get 1250 US dollars. If you compare the prize money of the Australian Open round trip ($50,000) with the runner prize money of the Indonesian Open round ($1250), it is simply a sky, an underground.
But don't cry too much for these open tournaments, to know that many small competitions of the BWF have no prize money at all, and the 2018 Croatia Future Badminton Tournament originally had no prize money, and the organizers were very kind that year and took out a $500 prize to the winners of 5 projects.
4. Play in professional leagues
China, Japan, Malaysia, India and other countries basically hold some professional badminton leagues every year, and the participants can get a lot of prize money to a greater or lesser extent. For example, in Malaysia's Purple League, participants can earn 15,000 to 20,000 US dollars in 2 months of competition, and players participating in the Indian Badminton Super League can easily get hundreds of thousands of yuan in prize money in a week or two by playing a few times.
However, most of the badminton professional leagues are still at a loss, the Chinese Badminton Super League broke out lin dan Weibo salary solicitation incident in the past few years, and the Indian Badminton Super League has not been profitable since it was held for 7 years.
5. Part-time as a coach/sparring partner
Some professional badminton players who are not funded by the national team occasionally go to work as badminton personal coaches or as sparring partners for top players in order to earn money. Because professional athletes have the skills and knowledge necessary to play badminton, this makes it easy for them to become badminton coaches. For example, during the period of studying in Australia after the retirement of former national hand bao Yixin, relying on being a club badminton coach, he can basically achieve self-sufficiency in life.
For most people who have enough money to train and play full-time, it's not necessary to earn money as a personal trainer. But for the average player struggling with subsistence, it's a relatively simple way to earn extra income to sustain a career, and it's also conducive to a rapid transition after retirement.
Sixth, part-time stringing
Professional badminton players will break a lot of shooting lines during normal training and competition, and they need to wear threads almost every day. Most badminton players do not need to thread themselves, and full-time stringers are responsible for these little things. But there are also some low-income badminton players who will teach themselves to thread and provide basic stringing services for club players or friends, which can't make a lot of money, but if there is free time and stringing machines, why not enjoy it.
When Li Zongwei was young, due to his family's financial constraints, he had to wear 20 to 30 rackets every day after training, just to save money to buy a better badminton racket. India's free agent Dey won the 2018 Salolou Open in Germany by beating Lin Dan, but he couldn't even afford to buy a few rackets, and the only 4 rackets in the bag were disconnected, and he had to borrow a few from his teammates on the national team to win.
Seven, have a formal career / be a boss
Many European and American badminton players have their own formal careers, earn money through work and business, and participate in international competitions at their own expense. For example, Li Verdes, a French free agent who once upset Li Zongwei, is a clothing store owner, Tan Yuhan, a former Italian player, is a doctor, and scott Evans, a former Irish player, is the owner of a fashion company.
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