Emma Raducanu will be British sport’s first billionaire thanks to her speaking Chinese
Emma Raducanu is set to become Britain’s first sporting billionaire – thanks to her ability to speak Chinese.
The 19-year-old ace – who shot to stardom when she won last year’s US Open as a rank outsider – left Brit tennis fans heartbroken when she crashed out of Wimbledon in the second round on Wednesday. But the defeat has not dimmed her earning potential, according to sport marketing experts.
Emma, who was awarded an MBE and crowned BBC Sports Personality Of The Year following last year’s triumph, already boasts a reported £10million fortune thanks to a string of sponsorship deals with companies including Nike, HSBC, Evian and Tiffany & Co. But she has greater global marketability than most western sports stars thanks to her Chinese heritage.
Her mum Renee Zhai is Chinese and Emma conducted part of her post-match press conference on Wednesday in Mandarin.
Xu Lijia, 34, who quizzed her in the language for Shanghai Great Sports Radio, said Emma was a `big star in China’ where people have taken her to their hearts.
The country boasts a 1.5bn population – nearly 20% of the entire world’s. “Being able to speak Mandarin is a huge thing. If she visits China she will receive the same reaction from crowds she gets at Wimbledon,’’ said the presenter – herself a former Olympic sailing champion.
“She will earn much more in sponsorship in China than she will here. No other sports star can do that.’’
On Chinese social media site Weibo the hashtag ’18-year-old ethnic Chinese young player wins US open championship’ has been viewed at least 200m times with fans calling her their ‘sister’, ‘beautiful’, ‘healthy’ and ‘a rising star’.
Emma’s agent Max Eisenbud, of IMG, has said the star – who is brand ambassador for nine companies – has left ‘millions on the table’ as she is limited to only 18 sponsorship days per year.
He said the interest in her was ‘spectacular, special and not normal’.
One sports marketing exec said: “The sky really is the limit as far as Emma is concerned. She may suffer a rise and fall in form and results. She is only 19.
“But she has real star quality and an appeal in part of the world many western stars have zero access to. We could be looking at Britain’s first sporting billionaire.’”
