RCB captain Virat Kohli could make up to £250,000 every time he posts on Instagram, according to a new study by Cricket Bet India.
The India skipper is one of the richest and most recognisable faces in world sport, and such is his popularity that he could earn £246,064 for every sponsored post on Instagram.
New research by Cricket Bet India looks at how much money IPL and international stars can make from sponsored posts on their respective Instagram pages, based on the going rate for advertising on the social media platform to show which players have the most valuable profiles.
Kohli is already the most valuable cricketer in the world, and according to the Forbes 2020 rich list earned almost £20,000,000 ($26,000,000) over the past year, with a massive £18,000,000 in endorsements and £2,000,000 in salary and winnings.
This makes him the 66th richest sportsman in 2020, but with an Instagram following of 75.7 million, he is without doubt one of the most popular.
He has partnerships that he promotes on his social media pages with Puma, staywrogn, Scentials and Play MPL among others, and research reveals that for each post he promotes each brand on, he receives £246,064 or £370,334 for a sponsored video to make him by far the most valuable IPL player in terms of social media earnings.
Former India skipper and current leader of CSK MS Dhoni is the second most valuable, earning £93,289 per post and £140,404 for each video posted to promote brands such as Panerai and Sound Logic.
Mumbai Indians have the next two players with the biggest earning potential in Rohit Sharma (£49,082 per post and £73,871 per vide) and Hardik Pandya (£42,581 and £64,087), while Suresh Raina, also of CSK, earns more than AB de Villiers with £39,981 per post and £60,173 per sponsored video.
De Villiers and David Warner are the highest-earning overseas players currently signed to play in the IPL, when looking at sponsored posts on Instagram.
De Villiers has 10.6 million followers, meaning brands will be paying him around £34,455 to promote their content/brand in a sponsored post on his profile, while Warner’s following of 4 million means his posts are worth £13,002.
Despite Kohli’s popularity online and his marketability, he remains way off the top sportsmen in terms of Instagram worth.
Cristiano Ronaldo has 237,000,000 followers on Instagram which means his sponsored posts are worth an incredible £770,373 while Lionel Messi’s are valued at £539,586 per sponsored post thanks to his 166,000,000 followers.
To players with the least earning potential are Sunrisers Hyderabad duo Bavanaka Sandeep and Thangarasu Natarajan, who could charge just 0.08p and 0.009p per post respectively.
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