DataPOWA, the AI technology firm, has today released a list of the 20 most powerful sports people as ranked by athletePOWA, the AI, data-driven, real-time, marketing power evaluation engine, as a contrast to the recently released Nielsen Most Marketable Athletes list. The Nielsen list is ranked by Nielsen’s athlete marketability assessment methodology, and athletePOWA measures the most powerful athletes from a marketing perspective, utilising over 60 data sets, including social media, search, websites, apps and performance metrics.
- Of the athletePOWA top 20, eight also feature in the Nielsen list (Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr, Lionel Messi, LeBron James, Virat Kohli, Stephen Curry, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe).
- athletePOWA has the three footballers – Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, Brazilian Neymar Jr and Argentinian Lionel Messi – at the top of the rankings. In the Nielsen rankings, Messi pips Ronaldo and Neymar Jr is down in 6th position, with basketball’s LeBron James (USA) taking 3rd place.
- Soccer is the dominant sport on athletePOWA with nine players featuring. World Champions France have two players, as do Spain, and French club Paris St Germain are the only club side with two representatives (Neymar Jr and Kylian Mbappe). Nielsen’s list has 11 footballers; France and Argentina each have two players, the same PSG pair are represented again, and Italy’s Juventus also have two (Ronaldo and Argentinian Paulo Dybala).
- USA Basketball has four athletePOWA entries: LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry. Only James and Curry make the Nielsen top 20.
- Nine of the athletes in the athletePOWA list are from the Americas (seven from the USA). The Nielsen list has 10 from the Americas (six are from the USA).
- athletePOWA has 10 European representatives across seven countries (Spain leads with three, France has two), while Nielsen has seven from Europe (France is the only country with more than one representative).
- athletePOWA has one Asian representative – Indian cricketer Virat Kohli – and Nielsen’s list has two, with his Indian national teammate Rohit Sharma joining his captain on the list.
- The average age of the athletePOWA list is 33.3 years; 14 of the list are in their thirties, four in their twenties and two in their forties. The youngest is France and PSG footballer Kylian Mbappe (21), and the oldest is USA golfer Tiger Woods (44). Nielsen’s average age is 27.7 years; with nine athletes in their thirties, 10 in their twenties, and one teenager. USA tennis star Coco Gauff is the youngest at 16 and USA basketball player LeBron James the oldest at 35.
DataPOWA’s C.E.O., Michael Flynn, said:
“The athletePOWA rankings are focused on the current marketing power of the world’s top athletes, earned by being at the pinnacle of a sport both in terms of athletic performance and influence and resonance with sports fans over a number of years. Soccer is dominant on both athletePOWA and the Nielsen list, and while Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi may be reaching the twilight of their careers, their marketing power shows no signs of slowing down. 90% of all the athletes on show are from the Americas or Europe. It will be interesting to see if Asia, Africa and Australasia can develop more top athletes to challenge this in the next couple of years. The Indian IPL league is bucking that trend in cricket and could act as the blueprint for success to create or attract the future superstars of sport.”
–ENDS–
Enquiries:
Stephen O’Malley, DataPOWA
stephen.omalley@datapowa.co.uk +447768907668
About DataPOWA
DataPOWA is a business offering specialist marketing and data services to sports rights holders, brands and agencies. In November 2018 it launched AI software POWA index, a measurement of power, AI valuation, prediction and ranking system, and in October 2020 it launched athletePOWA.
About athletePOWA
The influence and impact of sports stars has evolved. athletePOWA is the way to measure it. Through an AI, data-driven, real-time measurement engine, athletePOWA provides an independent, definitive ranking system for athletes across the world. Utilising over 60 data sets, including social media, search, websites, apps and live audience, athletePOWA provides a relative score for identifying effectiveness and impact of an athlete to their sponsors. DataPOWA can predict the future trajectory of athletes, however the athletePOWA ranking is based on current marketing power.
