Major U.S. sports leagues took a combined $14.1 billion revenue hit in 2020, but times have never been better for athletes with towering personal brands.

Four individual athletes earned more than $100 million in the past year, per Forbes’ 2021 tabulation. Endorsement deals, business ventures, and player salaries were factored into earnings estimates. LeBron James fell just short of the 9-figure club at $96.5 million.

At the top of the list, Conor McGregor earned $180 million, primarily from the sale of his whiskey brand, Proper No. 12. He wasn’t the only one to gain more from his business ventures than his day job.

• Kevin Durant (10th, $75 million), like James, had his salary contained by the NBA salary cap and league-wide pay cuts as a result of the NBA’s $880 million drop in revenue from 2019 to 2020. Durant cashed in from his early investments in Postmates, which Uber acquired last July, and Coinbase, which went public in April. 
• Roger Federer (7th) showed the power of his brand. Injuries kept him off the court, but he still brought in $90 million from deals with Rolex, Credit Suisse, Uniqlo, and others.

Soccer stars Lionel Messi (2nd, $130 million), Cristiano Ronaldo (3rd, $120 million), and Neymar (6th, $95 million) earned most of their cash from salaries, despite Europe’s big soccer leagues losing an estimated $7.3 billion in revenue from the pandemic.

Just as notable were the absences: No women made the top 10, nor did any baseball or hockey players, highlighting the challenges those sports have had in marketing their biggest stars.

Centroid Investment Partners, a South Korea-based private equity firm, acquired TaylorMade Golf for $1.7 billion, the largest acquisition ever in the golf goods industry.

“The industry is currently experiencing high demand, increased participation with strong long-term opportunities around the world,” said Centroid CEO Jinhyeok Jeong. 

New York-based KPS Capital Partners, TaylorMade’s previous owner, acquired the company from adidas in May 2017 for $425 million.

TaylorMade, known for its innovation of metal drivers, has become a leading brand in the $80 billion global golf industry since its debut in 1979, endorsed by superstars like Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, and Rory McIlroy. 

The company became a hot commodity when it was placed on the market, and Centroid outbid four other groups of global strategic and financial investors. 

Centroid is evidently bullish on golf. 

In March, the firm completed its $170.7 million acquisition of the prestigious South Springs Country Club. The deal marked one of the most expensive golf course sales in South Korea, the third-largest golf market in the world behind the U.S. and Japan.

Tennessee announced Tuesday that it’s the quickest state to reach $1 billion in sports wagers — just six months after launching sports betting in the state.

What’s happening in Tennessee is comparable to what’s been unfolding across the U.S.

Here’s where other states’ sports wagers stood after six months of operations:

• New Jersey (9 casinos): $928 million
• Indiana (14 casinos): $794 million
• Colorado (35 casinos): $670 million

Colorado reached its first full year of sports betting earlier this week. The state recorded $2.3 billion in total wagers in its first 12 months.

Twenty-six states and Washington, D.C., have legalized sports gambling so far.

Six-month totals drop off a bit after the top four states. Mississippi, for example, brought in around $194 million in the six months after it legalized in August 2018 — before the industry exploded the way it has in the last year.

Another factor: Tennessee only permits mobile betting, while Mississippi explicitly forbids it.

Despite the state-to-state nuances, there’s plenty of money to be made across the country. Goldman Sachs predicts that the betting market will be worth almost $40 billion by 2033.