Bowling is an enjoyable and exciting sport, and many people worldwide have it as a hobby they tend to do whenever they are free and want to have fun. But many bowling enthusiasts also consider adopting it as a profession.
That must make you wonder how much a professional bowler makes in terms of salary; Well, that is precisely what I am here to tell you.
In this article, I will discuss bowling as a professional, the annual salary of pro bowlers, the highest-paid bowlers, and women’s wages as professional bowlers. So, if you are considering getting into the bowling alley as a professional, make sure you read this article until the end.
Is Bowling a High-paying Sport?
Bowling is like every other sport, a great professional choice if you are good at it. The first thing that people think about before going for a particular sport is how well-paying it is; well, bowling ranks right in the middle.
Bowling has a moderate following worldwide compared to other sports like football, cricket, and the like. Therefore, fewer sponsorships and tournaments are being held.
But wherever bowling is popular, bowling is very well-paid for professional athletes. So, we can indeed say that bowling is a high-paying sport if we consider all the paying elements.
Add the tournament prizes, awards, sponsorships, benefits, and everything. If you are part of a popular league or a popular bowling team, you will have a decent living with bowling as your full-time professional, so you should go for it if you want to.
Ways Bowlers Make Money
Bowlers can sometimes go dry for quite a while in terms of money if they do not know how to get it through their skill. Lucky for you, I have listed all the possible ways you can make money for yourself as a professional bowler. Let us take a look.
Local Tournaments
If you have just started bowling and are thinking of getting recognition and some quick money, the best bet is simply to take part in local tournaments and get a good position in them. It will help you kick off your career and succeed in the future.
Sponsorships
Once you have been recognized and become a part of the big leagues, companies will be willing to sponsor your outfits and the bowling equipment you use in tournaments. You can get paid quite a lot from sponsorships.
Paid Advertisements
If you have made an impact on the international scene and have what it takes to be on TV, companies will approach you for paid advertisements and endorsements of their products so your followers can buy them. Naturally, bowlers get paid a lot for these advertisements.
Event Management
You can also manage bowling events and tournaments on a beginner level if you know event hosting. Proper event management can get you a good amount of money if you are a struggling beginner in bowling.
Average Annual Salary of Pro Bowlers
As a bowler, most of your earnings will depend upon the sponsors unless you’re a full-time contracted bowler for a particular bowling organization or a team.
Bowlers can make around 45-50 thousand dollars yearly without excessive contracts professionally. That is pretty decent, considering it doesn’t include big-time contracts and sponsorships, ambassadorships, or other revenues.
This is the average salary of pro bowlers in the United States of America. Other countries where bowling is treated as a professional sport might differ in terms of annual salaries, but they will be around this mark.
How Much Do Pro Bowlers make per tournament?
Well, this depends upon the tournament’s scale we are talking about. Some small-scale tournaments do not pay for participation or even being runner-up.
But then, other bowling tournaments and leagues are incredibly generous in paying pro bowlers. They even give a particular round payment that can go up to around $5-10 thousand.
Typically, bowling tournaments do not pay for participation, but when it comes to winning the whole thing or coming runner-up, there are many epic prizes to be won.
A state-level bowling tournament can pay up to $70,000 for the winners and half of that, $35,000 for the runner-up. But international-level bowling tournaments can have even higher overall prizes for pro bowlers per tournament.
Highest Annual Salaries as Professional Bowler
Regarding the highest annual salaries, the numbers differ from different sources and years but are around the same. For example, professional bowlers do not make as much money as baseball, soccer players, or footballers annually.
But the highest annual salaries of professional bowlers are around $300,000 or so. This means that if you have the skills and the practice of becoming the best in the business, you will earn around this amount as a professional bowler yearly.
This is quite a decent paycheck if you ask me. But since bowling is not as worldwide as other sports, you can say that by professional sports standards, bowling isn’t as high-paying as others, but by professional means of money, it does pay quite a lot.
That is why professional bowlers have their bowling shops, brands, and companies alongside their professional bowling careers, and I suggest you do the same.
Who is the Highest-Paid Professional Bowler?
This question is prevalent. Who is the highest-paid professional bowler; People tend to ask a lot. Well, there have been many high-paid bowlers around the world.
But according to stats, Walter Ray Williams Jr. is a professional bowler who has earned over $5 million in revenue. He has been in the circuited for many years and has made many remarkable records.
He currently holds the all-time PBA tour career titles record at around 47 approximately, and he is also a competitive horseshoe pitcher. So he’s been around the block for a long time, which has helped him earn quite a lot of revenue. But if you were to become a bowler now, the number of endorsements and sponsorships available would help you generate even greater earnings.
How Much Do Bowlers Make From Sponsors?
Sponsorships are a big part of any professional sport. Athletes earn a lot from this source for advertising the products of sponsor companies and endorsing their products digitally or physically.
In bowling, the biggest source of revenue is sponsors. However, depending upon the company’s scale and sponsorship of an event or a particular bowler, the payments can differ.
Some sponsors pay less than others, while some sponsors contract you as their ambassador if you are very popular as a professional bowler. Local sponsors can pay between $1000 to more than that.
While bigger sponsors with bigger advertisement budgets, like bowling companies and AAA organizations like Coca-Cola and others, can pay up to tens of thousands of dollars for their sponsorships, it all comes down to how vital and well-known a tournament or a particular bowler himself is.
How Much Do Professional Women Bowlers Make?
Like other sports, in bowling, there are lesser pro bowlers in the female division as well. This directly affects the viewership of women’s bowling and reduces the sponsorships, endorsements, and overall revenue generated.
That is why women are paid less when it comes to pro bowling than pro men’s bowlers. It is often disputed, but in reality, it is a pretty easily understood concept; there’s no uneven pay gap.
Professional women’s bowlers make a decent sum of money on average in professional bowling. On a higher level, average annual bowling salaries are recorded at around 35 to 40 thousand per bowler.
The highest-paid female bowlers receive around $60,000 annually, disregarding endorsements and excessive sponsorships. This is low compared to the highest annual salaries of male bowlers but due to less viewership.
If more women supported the professional sport and viewed the sport, the viewership would increase, and in turn, the sport will become highly paid for by women.
Conclusion
Bowling is a high-paying sport, especially if you have the potential to become the next big thing in the game. With the help of the right contractors and sponsors, you’ll be living a high life in a short period. But it does not always work out this way. It is not easy to get sponsors at the beginning of your career. But if you are persistent and know various ways to make money as a bowler, you can earn a handsome salary.
So, it is better if you enjoy bowling as a sport for your leisure and continue working towards the professional scene with a job on the side.
If you make it, you can rely on bowling entirely for your salaries, but if not, you will still have a safe job on your hand. So with this advice, I’m going to end this article by saying I hope you have fantastic bowling experiences and success in your future!
