Cristiano Ronaldo is the world’s highest-paid athlete, taking home $88 million. Nike is the globe’s top sportswear brand, worth $28 billion and clocking $30 billion in annual revenues. And Creative Artists Agency beats all sports agencies, with a whopping $290 million in maximum commissions. But what, exactly, makes these so successful? What is it that’s driving the impressive numbers on their balance sheets? It’s the business relationships they have throughout the sports ecosystem.
FORBES SportsMoney Index (SMI) has ranked 430 athletes, agencies, brands and teams, accounting for both their financial power as well as their influential relationships with others in