Exploring the Explosion of Premier League Turnover in the Last Decade
The English Premier League (EPL) is comfortably the biggest professional sports league on the planet. It’s one of the most commercially lucrative and widely followed sports franchises, attracting hundreds of millions of engaged viewers week in, week out. This has helped to attract the world’s best players, managers and coaches, cementing it as a hugely marketable product.
The extensive coverage and ease of access has also ensured the EPL is one of the most popular sports events to bet on worldwide too. According to a review of bet365, this operator is now licensed to serve in every continent worldwide, giving them access to a global market of fully engaged EPL enthusiasts keen to wager on individual matches and futures betting markets.
The EPL is challenging the MLB and NFL
Aside from the almost certain surge in EPL betting revenues, we’ve also seen an extraordinary rise in revenue coming into the EPL itself. In the 2013/14 season, total club revenues reached £3.3 billion, positioning the EPL as the third biggest professional sports league by revenue behind Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Football League (NFL). By 2022/23, the league’s aggregate revenue had climbed further still to £6.1 billion.
More than half (£3.2 billion) of this figure comes from broadcast revenue alone. This has been driven by demand for broadcast rights globally, while in the UK Sky Sports upped the ante by paying the EPL more to broadcast the season at a domestic level.
It also appears that the EPL’s domestic and global broadcast and commercial revenue will surge further still in the 2025-2028 cycle, reaching a staggering £12.25 billion. Looking outside of the UK, serious broadcast partnerships have been secured in recent months. In Thailand, Jasmine International has agreed to pay over £185 million over the next commercial cycle to show live games to Thai fans. Similar deals have also been signed in the Caribbean, Mexico and Japan.
There’s also been a strengthening of existing arrangements. The EPL is seeing streams of money come out of Germany via Sky, Spain and Portugal via DAZN, and Hong Kong through PCCW. NBC has also sealed a deal with the EPL to increase broadcast coverage via its stateside platform and Peacock channel.
Looking at some of the commercial sponsorship deals recently concluded by the EPL, this too is generating significant sums for each of the 20 EPL teams. Just recently, Guinness penned a new £52 million partnership, while Barclays also extended their long-running association with the division for a further £75 million.
Matchday income among EPL clubs continues to rise too. In the 2022/23 season, £867 million was generated, with an average attendance of 40,000 spectators per match. The soaring matchday revenues, combined with commercial and broadcast revenues, has led to an inevitable rise in player wages.
Player salaries are intrinsically linked to EPL revenues
The biggest clubs in the EPL now typically allocate between 50%-70% of their revenue to player salaries. Manchester City held the biggest wage bill in the 2023/24 EPL season, amounting to £201.8 million per season. Their highest-paid player is Belgian playmaker Kevin De Bruyne, who rakes in almost £21 million per season. Meanwhile, City’s top goal scorer, Erling Haaland, also earns £19.5 million per season.
It’s difficult to know whether these wages are sustainable in the long term, but as long as broadcast and commercial revenues continue to climb, there’s no reason to suspect that wages will become suppressed.
In many ways, clubs are now beholden to the broadcasters for their finances. The amount of money they receive from Sky Sports means matchday income pales into insignificance by comparison. The danger is if clubs don’t have to rely so heavily on matchday income, they aren’t duty bound to give supporters the fairest possible deal. However, there are certain ticketing initiatives which have been welcomed in the EPL, most notably the £30 cap on away ticket prices for travelling fans.
Many football purists and traditionalists believe the EPL has taken the sport out of the so-called ‘beautiful game’. It’s hard to argue, given the sums involved, but the cat is well and truly out of the bag now and there’s no sign of the bubble bursting yet.
