Endorsement arrangements have become an important element of athletes’ lives in today’s sports business. Brands use athletes to serve as brand ambassadors in exchange for monetary compensation. Off-the-field initiatives such as endorsement deals contribute significantly to the net worth of the vast majority of affluent athletes.
Michael Jordan’s billion-dollar status was powered for many years by his Nike sponsorship deal. According to Forbes, tennis stars Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff have earned more money from sponsorship deals than they did on the court.
A number of record-breaking endorsement deals with rising and experienced sportsmen have been signed in recent years. Reebok’s endorsement arrangement with Venus Williams in 2000, on the other hand, is considered momentous.
According to the New York Times, Reebok negotiated a five-year, $40 million endorsement contract with the then-rising tennis champion and fashion icon, making it the largest endorsement agreement ever signed by a female athlete. She was later promoted as a female counterpart to Tiger Woods. The golfer had signed a $100 million endorsement deal with Nike at the time.
”This is the first deal for a woman athlete that is in the upper echelon of male athletes,” Bob Williams of Burns Sports, a company that matches athletes to advertisers, said. ”It’s the first time an advertiser felt that it had to pay top dollar for a female athlete. This is more of a sponsorship than an endorsement.”
Prior to the $40 million endorsement deal, Williams inked a $15 million contract with Reebok in 1995, when she first got pro. While Reebok’s offer to Williams was attractive even in today’s market, she was also considering other opportunities.
”But they didn’t have the vision of Reebok,” her agent Kevin Davis said. ”These guys at Reebok just blew away what they offered. Only one was into the end.”
Nonetheless, Williams said she had no plans of parting ways with Reebok. ”Even when I wasn’t officially with Reebok, I kept wearing Reebok. I kept wearing my lucky Reebok dress. I didn’t really want to switch my allegiance,” she said.
Williams began her professional career in 1994 and made her Australian Open debut in 1998 in the second round against her sister, Serena Williams; the two have since met each other over 20 times in their professional careers.
Williams went on to play in 16 Grand Slam finals and win 14 Grand Slam Women’s Doubles titles with Serena Williams. Her supremacy in the women’s tennis category began in 2000, and she went on to win 35 straight singles matches and six tournaments. In addition to her Reebok deal, the Olympic gold winner and entrepreneur has endorsement relationships with Wilson, Electronic Arts, Kraft, Ralph Lauren, and Tide.