THE BUSINESS OF NAOMI OSAKA
Our mission at Athlete Tech Group is to motivate, educate and assist athletes to take advantage of their influence and personal brand.
We believe professional athletes are highly underpaid (yes, under-paid) when you compare their salaries with their league revenues, especially when you take into consideration that the athletes are the main drivers of revenue
It’s why we stress the importance of every athlete looking into opportunities to grow their financial literacy and independence, because once they retire from their sport, their salary cheques stop too.
One athlete that is on top of their game both on and off the court is Naomi Osaka, the 23 year old tennis star from Japan. Let’s take a look at her winnings from each of her 4 grand slam titles and compare that to the overall revenue of each tournament.
There is a strong argument to be made that without the talent of the athletes themselves, the tennis organizations wouldn’t be racking in the amount of money that they are. So why aren’t the athletes seeing a larger piece of the pie?
Naomi has become the highest paid female athlete ever in 2020, accumulating a whopping $37.4M in prize money and endorsements, making it a record for the highest income for a female athlete in a single year, breaking the record previously by Maria Sharapova, who earned $29.7 million in 2015 (Forbes, 2021). The point here is that only 9% of her earnings came from actually playing tennis. Everything else comes from deals off the court, and that’s on personal branding and entrepreneurship.
Coming from a bi-cultural background with her mother being Japanese and her father hailing from Haiti, Naomi has become a global icon as the new face in women’s tennis, making her a marketers dream.
AT JUST 23, NAOMI POSSESSES ONE OF THE MOST IMPRESSIVE ATHLETE ENTREPRENEUR RESUMES YET:
It’s been interesting to see a new wave of athletes take their on court ventures into their own hands earlier in their careers, as traditionally, most would wait until retirement until they embarked into a new journey in business. NBA stars like LeBron and KD are just a few who have been multitasking in the boardroom and on the court. Back in 2019, Osaka was quoted expressing her admiration of the late Kobe Bryant, drawing inspiration from his short career as an entrepreneur.
“I WANT TO TAKE AN INTEREST IN MY BUSINESS NOW AND NOT WAIT UNTIL THE END OF MY CAREER. KOBE IS ONE OF THE BEST TO LEARN FROM IN SO MANY WAYS… I’M REALLY INTERESTED IN SEEING A YOUNG BUSINESS GROW AND ADDING VALUE TO THAT PROCESS. I TASKED MY TEAM WITH FINDING BRANDS THAT ALIGN WITH MY PERSONALITY AND MY INTERESTS.”
As we look into the future, we’ve seen how valuable technology is in the world of business with companies like Facebook, Uber and AirBnb among the most successful companies to IPO to date. We at ATG understand this is just the beginning, and using our powerful network of tech entrepreneurs and professional athletes, we want to help you embark in your own entrepreneurial journey to financial security long after your careers are over.