Bill Simmons made it onto a big-time list this year.
Forbes recently released its list of the highest-paid celebrities in the world for 2020. There were six athletes in the top 20 — Roger Federer, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar, LeBron James and Steph Curry.
In between James and Curry was someone who gets paid to talk about what those athletes do best: Simmons.
Simmons built a massive following as a writer at ESPN. He later helped create the “30 for 30” series and launched a website through ESPN called “Grantland,” which had a large following but was later shuttered by the network.
Simmons eventually launched his own venture, “The Ringer,” in 2016. The Ringer has a network of podcast shows, a website and staff of writers, and a film production unit. Simmons heads it all up and is The Ringer’s central draw.
In February, Simmons announced that Spotify was purchasing The Ringer (the estimated purchase amount is around $200 million). Forbes estimated that Simmons pulled in $82.5 million as of June.
Though that is a huge amount of money, it’s more of a one-time large bump that would put Simmons on the list due to the sale of his company. Simmons has spent nearly 25 years building his brand and entertaining sports fans. In 2020, much of that work paid off in the biggest way.
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