The baseball mega-agent sets a record with commissions of up to $191 million, leading a group of 15 managing over $20 billion in active playing contracts.
After negotiating massive new contracts for ace pitcher Max Scherzer and shortstop Corey Seager, super-agent Scott Boras entered the 2022 season with a client roster featuring six of baseball’s nine highest salaries for the year. Zoom out a bit to consider total contract value, and Boras is the man behind five of the 13 largest active deals in the game, with star clients Bryce Harper, Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg and Anthony Rendon in addition to Seager.
It should be no surprise, then, that Boras ranks as the most powerful agent in North American team sports, with $3.83 billion in active playing contracts under management, yielding up to $191 million in commissions based on the maximum 5% fee that MLB agents are allowed to charge. That breaks the record of $161 million in commissions that Boras set the last time Forbes published this list, in 2020. Powerhouse NBA agent Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management comes in a distant second with $86 million in commissions, based on that league’s maximum 4% fee off his $2.15 billion in active playing contracts.
Boras has now landed in the top spot eight out of the nine times Forbes has ranked sports agents, dating to 2013. The one time he lost the lead was in 2019, one of six years in which the list included Jonathan Barnett and other European soccer agents—and Boras still settled at No. 2.
Just how dominant is he? While Boras represents 106 clients, his five largest active contracts alone add up to $1.47 billion, which would be enough to land him behind only Schwartz in Forbes’ 2022 agent ranking with $73 million in maximum commissions.
That isn’t to downplay the incredible paydays other agents are producing. Like Boras, Schwartz has boosted his commission number by about 18% since the 2020 edition of this list. In all, the top 15 agents in North American team sports manage over $20 billion in playing contracts, for maximum commissions of $837 million, both slight increases over 2020—no small feat after the pandemic battered league revenues and halted the growth of salary caps.
Agents in individual sports like tennis and golf, where athletes don’t collect salaries, were excluded from this list. CAA, the most valuable sports agency on Forbes’ 2022 list, also does not have any agents included in the ranking, but that again has less to do with the business they’re doing than with how the agency, and the list, is constructed. As the industry becomes more complex—with agents increasingly expected not just to negotiate playing contracts but also to spearhead pre-draft training, arrange media coverage, secure endorsement and content deals, develop entrepreneurial opportunities and ensure post-retirement financial security—CAA expects its agents to collaborate with one another and across divisions of the agency. Few of its clients have a single agent, or an obvious “lead” agent.
“The definition of ‘client servicing’ has changed rapidly, especially over the last five years, and you cannot be all things to all people yourself because that’s too hard a task to be an expert at everything,” says Howie Nuchow, the co-head of CAA Sports, adding: “You have to have all of these resources that you bring to bear, or else it’s not nearly enough. And the clients deserve much more.”
Still, for all the ways that the business is evolving—and the new importance athletes are placing on fashion shows and podcasts and the metaverse—some things remain fundamental.
“I’ve been doing this a long time,” says WME Sports’ Joel Segal, the list’s highest-ranking football agent, “and the one constant is forming great relationships.”
MOST POWERFUL SPORTS AGENTS 2022
#1. Scott Boras
Agency: Boras Corporation
Sport: Baseball
Key Clients: Gerrit Cole, Bryce Harper, Max Scherzer
Estimated Clients: 106
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $3.83 billion
Maximum Commissions: $191 million
Scott Boras has $3.83 billion in active playing contracts under management.
G Fiume/Getty Images#2. Jeff Schwartz
Agency: Excel Sports Management
Sport: Basketball
Key Clients: Cade Cunningham, Brandon Ingram, Nikola Jokic
Estimated Clients: 35
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $2.15 billion
Maximum Commissions: $86 million
Jeff Schwartz represents NBA stars like Nikola Jokic and Cade Cunningham.
Excel Sports Management#3. Joel Wolfe
Agency: Wasserman
Sport: Baseball
Key Clients: Nolan Arenado, Yu Darvish, Giancarlo Stanton
Estimated Clients: 25
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $1.16 billion
Maximum Commissions: $58 million
Joel Wolfe manages $1.16 billion in active playing contracts for Wasserman.
Kyodonews/ZUMA Newscom#4. Rich Paul
Agency: Klutch Sports Group
Sport: Basketball
Key Clients: Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Zach LaVine
Estimated Clients: 37
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $1.36 billion
Maximum Commissions: $55 million
Rich Paul represents star clients like LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Mitchell Leff/Getty Images#5. Dan Lozano
Agency: MVP Sports Group
Sport: Baseball
Key Clients: Manny Machado, Albert Pujols, Joey Votto
Estimated Clients: 42
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $1.04 billion
Maximum Commissions: $52 million
Former Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson with his agent, Dan Lozano.
Hannah Foslien/Getty Images#6. Casey Close
Agency: Excel Sports Management
Sport: Baseball
Key Clients: Paul Goldschmidt, Kyle Schwarber, George Springer
Estimated Clients: 33
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $960 million
Maximum Commissions: $48 million
#7. Joel Segal
Agency: WME Sports
Sport: Football
Key Clients: Khalil Mack, Christian McCaffrey, Jaylen Waddle
Estimated Clients: 79
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $1.41 billion
Maximum Commissions: $42 million
#8. Todd France
Agency: Athletes First
Sport: Football
Key Clients: Aaron Donald, Derrick Henry, Dak Prescott
Estimated Clients: 45
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $1.4 billion
Maximum Commissions: $42 million
#9. Bill Duffy
Agency: WME Sports
Sport: Basketball
Key Clients: Scottie Barnes, Luka Doncic, Chet Holmgren
Estimated Clients: 31
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $1.02 billion
Maximum Commissions: $41 million
Bill Duffy is the lead agent at BDA Sports Management, working under the WME Sports umbrella after a 2020 investment.
Jeff-Chiu/AP#10. Sam and Seth Levinson
Agency: ACES
Sport: Baseball
Key Clients: Charlie Blackmon, Nathan Eovaldi, Logan Webb
Estimated Clients: 93
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $810 million
Maximum Commissions: $40 million
#11. David Mulugheta
Agency: Athletes First
Sport: Football
Key Clients: Jalen Ramsey, Michael Thomas, Deshaun Watson
Estimated Clients: 86
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $1.28 billion
Maximum Commissions: $38 million
#12. Mark Bartelstein
Agency: Priority Sports & Entertainment
Sport: Basketball
Key Clients: Bradley Beal, Gordon Hayward, Kyle Lowry
Estimated Clients: 69
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $930 million
Maximum Commissions: $37 million
#13. Drew Rosenhaus
Agency: Rosenhaus Sports Representation
Sport: Football
Key Clients: Shaquil Barrett, Tyreek Hill, Darius Slay
Estimated Clients: 97
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $1.23 billion
Maximum Commissions: $37 million
Drew Rosenhaus
Chris Szagola/AP#14. Craig Oster
Agency: Newport Sports Management
Sport: Hockey
Key Clients: Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone, Matthew Tkachuk
Estimated Clients: 91
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $860 million
Maximum Commissions: $35 million
#15. Nick Chanock
Agency: Wasserman
Sport: Baseball
Key Clients: Javier Baez, Jose Berrios, Ryan McMahon
Estimated Clients: 38
Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $690 million
Maximum Commissions: $35 million
METHODOLOGY
Forbes’ 2022 list of the most powerful sports agents includes agents focused on North American team sports, ranked by an estimate of the maximum commissions they can generate from the contracts they manage. Unlike some previous editions of the list, this ranking does not include European soccer agents. And unlike Forbes’ list of the most valuable sports agencies, this ranking does not consider endorsement deals—only playing contracts—in recognition of the fact that, at some major agencies, separate marketing divisions handle all or much of the work around those contracts. Thus, the ranking excludes agents in individual sports such as golf and tennis, who traditionally do not collect commissions on their clients’ prize money and focus instead on marketing contracts.
Contract figures represent estimates of the total value of all active deals under management, including both money that has already been paid out and money that has yet to be paid. To calculate commissions, Forbes multiplied the contract value by the maximum agent fee allowed by that league’s players’ union (3% in the NFL, 4% in the NBA and the NHL, 5% in MLB).
Agents often work in teams or with support from junior agents; for this ranking, contract values are assigned to the lead agent for each client. In cases where an athlete is co-represented by multiple agents and there is no discernible lead, a portion of the contract value is assigned to each agent. In recognition of the particularly high degree of collaboration among agents at CAA, its agents—including several who have previously appeared in Forbes’ ranking—were excluded from this year’s list.
All figures are Forbes estimates as of July 2022, compiled through conversations with industry insiders and with the help of public reports and databases such as Spotrac, Inside the League, PuckPedia, CapFriendly and Capology. Forbes’ contract total estimates are rounded to the nearest $10 million while maximum commission estimates are rounded to the nearest $1 million. Some clients and contract figures that could not be independently corroborated were not included.
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