Where is most of the money in sports? Probably big sponsorship deals and TV contracts, but because not all of those deals are done directly with players and the teams, tournaments, competitions and leagues have the power of distrubuting the money to their teams and mostly the succesful ones that reach the final stages and win titles.

Americans might be living in a closed market when it comes to sports, and especially the NFL and MLB, two leagues that are sustained financially pretty much by one nation. If there’s one thing this infographic teaches us it’s that football, soccer that is, rules the world. Be it the UEFA Champions League, that divided over $940 million between the participants in the 2010-2011 season or the FIFA World Cup, sharing $420 million between 32 nations, soccer tournaments are where the big money is.

The NFL? The league pays around $30 million to division winners and everyone who reaches the postseason, with a Super Bowl win worth another $4.6 million. The World Series and MLB playoffs payouts are 10th on the list, with the World Series winner getting $2.6 million. But American sports, unlike most of the world, teams and franchises actually expect to make a profit anyway, not matter how good they preform.