Even though the NFL’s salary cap is taking a dip for the first time in a decade, its top stars are doing better than ever.

The league’s top 10 earners will bring in $418 million this year, per Forbes, factoring in salary, sponsorships and other earnings — up 9% over the previous year. 

• Dak Prescott topped the list with $87 million, mostly from the $66 million signing bonus in the four-year, $160 million deal he signed in March.
• Tom Brady, $72.5 million, was second overall and the runaway winner in off-field earnings with $45 million. Brady has endorsement deals with the likes of crypto company FTX, Fanatics, and Under Armour, as well as his own ventures including NFT company Autograph and media venture 199 Productions.
• Off-field earnings tapered quickly, with only Brady, Patrick Mahomes ($22 million), Prescott ($12 million), Russell Wilson ($12 million), Aaron Rodgers ($11 million) and Trevor Lawrence ($6 million) earning over $2 million off the field. 

The league’s salary cap, which is based on previous year’s revenues, dropped to $182.5 million for 2021, compared to $198.2 million the previous year. Teams paid $4.6 billion ($2.5 billion guaranteed) in new contracts and extensions this offseason, down 10% from last year.

Those figures are likely to grow when the league starts receiving revenue from its $113 billion in new media deals, most of which begin in 2023.

CBS Sports experienced double-digit year over year ad revenue increase for its NFL broadcasts. The main reason? Sports betting.

Tony Taranto, senior VP sports sales for CBS Sports, said the gaming industry is “probably the most significant new category in a generation.”

The network saw ad sales reach $609 million during last year’s regular season, per Standard Media Index. Advertisers spent an average of roughly $377,420 for a 30-second spot during games. 

Ahead of the 2021 season, gambling companies are the largest new ad sales category for the NFL since 2015.

The surge in sports betting ads comes as no surprise following recent moves by the league. 

• The league inked its first-ever official sportsbook partnerships in April with Caesars, DraftKings, and FanDuel. The deals are worth close to $1 billion combined, and each spans five years. 
• Last month, the NFL announced it approved FOX Bet, MGM, PointsBet, and WynnBet as sportsbook operators for the 2021 season. 
• The league will allow six television sportsbook spots per game, with broadcasters CBS, NBC, FOX, and ESPN free to negotiate with sponsors. 

The NFL generated $2.8 billion in ad revenue during the 2020 regular season, a 3% increase year-over-year, despite the global pandemic. 

The second-most valuable sports team in the world showed just how loyal its fanbase is this past week.

A municipal bond disclosure revealed that New York Yankees fans deferred $94 million in tickets purchased from the shortened 2020 season to attend games this season, as opposed to asking for a refund.

The team sold an additional $63.3 million in 2021 tickets as of June 30, totaling 1.37 million 2021 tickets sold, or $157.2 million in revenue.

The Yankees were among several pro teams that deferred tickets for fans.

• The NFL’s New York Jets, Baltimore Ravens, Indianapolis Colts, Seattle Seahawks, and Tennessee Titans deferred season tickets.
• NBA teams that deferred all or some tickets included the Detroit Pistons, Washington Wizards, and Philadelphia 76ers.

In 2019, the last non-pandemic MLB season, the Yankees tallied $321.4 million in ticket and suite revenue. They’re not alone in their financial losses — Major League Baseball reported operational losses of $3 billion last season.

NCSoft, a South Korean video game developer, has lost $3.7 billion in market value since Aug. 25 after its highly anticipated new title flopped. 

“Blade & Soul 2”, the martial arts role-playing game, is suffering a “crushing defeat” after failing to meet market expectations. The performance caused NCSoft’s stock to drop 24%, making it the worst performer on the Korean Stock Exchange over a five-day period heading into the weekend.

NCSoft isn’t the only Korean-based game company experiencing woes. 

Its biggest rival, Krafton Inc., failed to meet expectations during its $3.8 billion initial public offering in August, which was South Korea’s biggest in more than a decade. 

Shares of Krafton fell as much as 20% during its trading debut after opening down 9.9% — the country’s worst IPO performance in 17 years — as a result of regulators in the Chinese market punishing video game companies for neither relinquishing exclusive rights nor reporting details of investments.

The Tencent subsidiary planned to raise at least $5 billion in June by selling 20% of its shares, valuing the video game holding company at $25 billion.