2012 Korean pro earning

[lemmata]

That book was written when he had 6 months rest. The book was really successful. He just don't have enough time to write more books now.

That's too bad. I guess we will have to wait a long time.

Starcraft 2 is not a successful game now in Korea. I am sure Lim Yohwan (SlayerS_BoxeR) earned much more than that ten years ago.

If we are just talking about prize money from tournaments, then SlayerS_Boxer never made much more than $200,000/year in his best years. So he didn't make much more in prize money than the current Starcraft 2 players. He did make an additional $200,000/year in salaries from his pro team, as well as more money from his endorsement deals (He appeared in TV ads for Intel). However, SlayerS_BoxeR was a very marketable star, so he had much more value than other players who had comparable results. As lovelove states, Starcraft 2 has not achieved as much popularity. The salaries that pro gamers receive from their teams have dropped dramatically (perhaps by 50% or more), which means that they have to rely more on prize money from tournaments.

I am almost certain that the table that trout posted does not include the players' earnings from the Chinese leagues, which are not insignificant (probably five figures). The pros also receive "game fees" just for playing, which don't count toward the prize earnings. Even pros who do not earn any prize money scrape by somehow on game fees and teaching. So the go players' numbers are probably better than they look.

Now, what's interesting to me is that, in 2011, Cho U made more than $1 million in prize money to lead everyone in the world. Cho U is a strong player (an international title winner), but he is generally not considered a top 10 player in the world. In sports (soccer, baseball, football, etc.), the strongest players generally make the most money. The cultural, historical, and economical reasons for this sort of oddity may be interesting.

[tapir]

What I find depressing is that even No. 10 is already close to a middle class salary in my part of the world (Switzerland). Well, not that this isn't sufficient, but how does this leave No. 50, No. 100, No. 200? (If you compare this to artists make sure to compare to top earners among them not to the average artist who struggles. There are simply too many artists and no artist exam = entrance barrier.) On the other hand there is probably a lot of private endorsement - as in paying several hundred $ for a teaching game.

[topazg]

Close to a middle class salary? What is a "middle class" salary? If so, that still sounds very high, are things more expensive in Switzerland?

The average salary in the UK is, IIRC, more like $45,000 ..

[hailthorn011]

Are there any such endorsement contracts for top baduk players?

I don't know about endorsement contracts, but some top pros probably get some compensation for signing the bottom of expensive baduk boards. I don't know how or how much they are compensated though. There is an example being sold by Go Game Guru at this link: http://shop.gogameguru.com/lee-changho- ... -board-83/

Wow, that is an incredibly beautiful Go board. If only I had 50,000 lying around.

[gasana]

Medium income in switzerland is about 70'000 CHF a year (75'000 USD).
And yes, switzerland is an expensive country

[tj86430]

Medium income in switzerland is about 70'000 CHF a year (75'000 USD).
And yes, switzerland is an expensive country

While OT, here are some average gross wages in European countries (in USD/year, according to wikipedia):

Switzerland 81936
Norway 77148
Denmark 75204
Liechtenstein 70200
Luxembourg 68028
Netherlands 60192
Germany 56880
Belgium 49428
Iceland 48096
Finland 47856
Sweden 47400
Ireland 45180
France 44352
Austria 38088
United Kingdom 37056
Italy 32604
Cyprus 30036
Andorra 29604
Spain 27084
Slovenia 23604
Malta 19860
Greece 18780
Croatia 16344
Portugal 15984
Czech 14664
Estonia 12828
Poland 12732
Slovakia 11760
Hungary 11544
Montenegro 10980
Turkey 10884
Latvia 10824
Russia 10344
Bosnia 10344
Lithuania 9432
Serbia 7896
Kazakhstan 7884
Macedonia 7680
Romania 7296
Bulgaria 6060
Belarus 5940
Azerbaijan 5532
Ucraine 4584
Georgia 4536
Albania 4020
Moldova 3408

(most of the data is from 2011 or 2012, but some are older)

[gasana]

Thx

last OT for me. Medium and average income is not the same. Medium is half of the people earn more, half less. Average is a bit biased with the very high income that push the number up.

I don't know if medium is the correct word in english in fact, maybe this is confusing.

[daal]

Are there any such endorsement contracts for top baduk players?

I am very sure, that, not at all.

I must say that I found this information to be quite a shock. Up until now, I had assumed that people like Lee Sedol and Lee Changho were household names (They are in my house ), and would be doing endorsements for fast cars, computers or at least for the Korean version of Wheaties.

So Baduk players aren't comparable to sports stars in the West?

[tj86430]

Thx

last OT for me. Medium and average income is not the same. Medium is half of the people earn more, half less. Average is a bit biased with the very high income that push the number up.

I don't know if medium is the correct word in english in fact, maybe this is confusing.

That's median (I believe)

[hyperpape]

Switzerland has almost 4x the per capita GDP of South Korea, so you should factor that in.

[Mef]

Are there any such endorsement contracts for top baduk players?

I am very sure, that, not at all.

I must say that I found this information to be quite a shock. Up until now, I had assumed that people like Lee Sedol and Lee Changho were household names (They are in my house ), and would be doing endorsements for fast cars, computers or at least for the Korean version of Wheaties.

So Baduk players aren't comparable to sports stars in the West?

It doesn't look like they compare to sports stars...but a comparison to all professional athletes would probably be reasonable.

[badukJr]

Are there any such endorsement contracts for top baduk players?

I am very sure, that, not at all.

I must say that I found this information to be quite a shock. Up until now, I had assumed that people like Lee Sedol and Lee Changho were household names (They are in my house ), and would be doing endorsements for fast cars, computers or at least for the Korean version of Wheaties.

So Baduk players aren't comparable to sports stars in the West?

I don't think Baduk players are comparable to sports stars in Korea! Notice how most of them just marry other baduk players, instead of k-pop stars, models, etc... They have nothing on K-League players.

[snorri]

If you look at this 2011 ESPN list, the Baduk players aren't doing that shabby.


It's all over the map, though. There's a guy who regularly makes almost $1M or more at darts, true. But the top players in the Baduk list still do better than the top men's surfer.

And the top Baduk players make more than the top competitive eater, Joey Chestnut.

[tj86430]

If you look at this 2011 ESPN list, the Baduk players aren't doing that shabby.


It's all over the map, though. There's a guy who regularly makes almost $1M or more at darts, true. But the top players in the Baduk list still do better than the top men's surfer.

And the top Baduk players make more than the top competitive eater, Joey Chestnut.

Strange list. How did they pick which sports (and the term is used very loosely, as eating proves) are included and which are left out?

[Mef]

If you look at this 2011 ESPN list, the Baduk players aren't doing that shabby.


It's all over the map, though. There's a guy who regularly makes almost $1M or more at darts, true. But the top players in the Baduk list still do better than the top men's surfer.

And the top Baduk players make more than the top competitive eater, Joey Chestnut.

Strange list. How did they pick which sports (and the term is used very loosely, as eating proves) are included and which are left out?

If I had to guess I would say availability of data. Since it was coming from ESPN, they probably already had reports on all of these national / international event, and this list was just compiling what they already more or less knew. It mentions "Official salary data unavailable for sports not listed". For instance, they omitted track and field. This is probably because even stars in the professional track and field athletes make relatively little money from contests and the lion's share comes from privately negotiated sponsorship/endorsement deals (For instance, it's well known that the sprinter Usain Bolt probably made in the tens of millions in 2011, but all his contracts are private so they wouldn't be included in this chart. In contrast, there is a "distance runner" category, because there are many marathons throughout the year with known prize pools).