YouTube video: https://youtu.be/rQvw2d9vQ9M
Plenty of the news has been talking about money recently.
So I thought we'll also talk about Money! Prize Money that is!
Kento Momota made history in 2019 as the first player to break half a million US Dollars in prize money.
In comparison, Rafael Nadal made over $16 million in only prize money in 2019. Let's not even start talking about the endorsements the top tennis players pull in.
Let us take a closer look at how much prize money is being awarded to badminton pros who are playing on the badminton World Tour circuit this year!
There are 6 levels on the badminton world tour circuit:
HSBC is the title sponsor from the super 300 onwards to the world tour finals, hence the inclusion of the brand in the tournaments.
BWF implements slightly different ratios towards prize money allocation depending on the level of the tournament. You can find the specific ratios below.
Food for thought: The ATP Finals in tennis for 2021 has a total prize pool of $14.5 million whereas badminton lags behind with $1.5 million for its season-ending World Tour Finals. What can the BWF and us as players and fans do to help increase this prize money pot?
You will notice Singles and Doubles players get different pay. And the prize money for doubles there is listed as pair. so you'll have to split that money in half for individual doubles players. All prize money is pre-tax so tax will be paid according to regulations set out.
So if you're like Anders Antonson who just won the HSBC World Tour Finals, you get $120k before tax! If you're Lee Yang or Wang Chi Lin, you'll get $63k apiece.
The prize money then gets halved (almost) for every single finishing position further down.
2020 Season Super 1000:
First, we have the 2 recent Thailand Opens which were upgraded to Super 1000 to complete the 3 2020 season Super 1000's and they have a total prize pool of $1 million each.
So if you're in singles and you win, you'll get $70k which is 70 times more compared to if you've lost in the first round ($1000).
2021 Season Super 1000:
For the 2021's Super 1000, you can see the 3 tournaments which are scheduled for this year and all 3 of them have different amounts of total prize money with the Indonesian Open having the most at $1.25 million and the All England the least at $850k.
I'm not sure why All England's total prize money was below the $1 million threshold required for a Super 1000 but they must have a valid reason.
But as All England won't carry any Olympic qualifying points this year, it might be a good chance for plenty of other players to grab good world ranking points and some prize money too!
2021 Season Super 750:
We have 5 tournaments: The Malaysian Open which is right after the All England this year as well as Denmark, Japan, French and China opens.
All of them are above the $700k threshold required for a Super 750 with Denmark open having $25k more compared to the other 4 tournaments at $775k in prize money.
All 5 of these events will pay between $750 and $775 if you lose in the first round and you'll get upwards of $50k if you win these events (Singles).
2021 Season Super 500:
There are supposed to be 7 of these a year and have a minimum threshold of $350k in prize money for these events.
And as you can see, all of the tournaments are providing prize money of $400k, so above the $350k threshold except the Singapore Open at $320k.
You'll also note that I have listed the Thailand Open in red as they have been bumped up to a Super 1000 earlier this season so we'll only have 6 super 500s this season.
And oh! another difference for these compared to level 1 to 3 events is, these events DO NOT pay any prize money until you get to the last 16! So any players who lose in the first round will be super sad and disappointed to not get any prize money at all to cover any costs! Winning a $400k Super 500 in Singles will get you $30k and just under $16k each if you're a Doubles player.
2021 Season Super 300:
There are 12 of them a year and they have a minimum prize money threshold of $150k. You can also clearly see there's an odd one out here!
The Taipei open has a prize money of $500k! This also explains why they're a popular tournament with the pros! This means they pay out more than every single Super 500 event as well as more than doubled every other single event in this category!
You can also see the upcoming Swiss and German open have their prize money at $140k which is slightly below the $150k threshold but all the other events are above that.
The Thailand Masters in red are again bumped up to make the 2 Super 1000s earlier last month so they won't be running.
And similar to the Super 500s, these tournaments don't pay until you get to the last 16 of each event!
2021 Season Super 100:
Finally, we are down to the super 100. These are considered level 6 events and doesn't carry any HSBC sponsorship so they are only named as the BWF World Tour Super 100. They have a minimum prize money threshold of $75k so all events scheduled for this year are above that.
Winning one of these will get you around $7000 dollars if you're a Singles player but if you're out in the last 16, you're getting just a touch above $300 dollars, not sure that's enough to cover flights for most of the players!
It is incredibly tough to make a living as an independent full-time professional player if you're not backed by a national federation or have enough endorsements to make a living. Big respect to those players who are!
What are your thoughts about the prize money for the tournaments? Put them down in the comments section below.
Thank you and see you in the next one!
CK
