Venezuela’s first World Baseball Classic crown came with the largest share of a record $37 million prize pool, Front Office Sports reported on Wednesday.
The run to the title, earned on Tuesday night with a 3-2 win over Team USA in Miami, concluded a tournament that offered compensation more than double the $15 million from the 2023 WBC.
Each of the 20 teams were guaranteed at least $750,000, to be split evenly between each country’s baseball governing body and the players. Shares for coaches and staff came from the federation’s portion.
The farther a team advanced in the tournament, the larger the payout.
Venezuela, per the report, collected $2.5 million for winning the championship, for a total of $6.75 million combined with money earned from earlier rounds.
So the Venezuelan players will get half, about $3.375 million — broken down to about $112,500 per player, according to Front Office Sports’ report.
While some players on Team Venezuela will earn at or near the Major League Baseball minimum of $780,00 this season, as whole the players will earn $187 million in the 2026 campaign. That averages to more than $6 million per player, according to the report.
MLB’s tournament rights contract with Netflix in Japan, which the Front Office Sports report estimated to be worth more than $100 million, contributed to the boost in the prize pool.
The tournament also drew a total attendance of 1.62 million, a 24% increase from the 2023 WBC when Japan won the title.
–Field Level Media
