Professional bowling is vastly different from any other sport league out there. From the salary they make to the way the league operates, professional bowling is nothing like the other sports. Bowling is arguably one of the hardest leagues to become a professional in due to the way the league operates and it is not very rewarding compared to other sports.
First, we are going to talk about how professional bowling works. Unlike other sports like football or baseball where the teams have individual games to eventually be placed in a tournament according to their records, professional bowling is just one giant tournament after another. Sometimes participants have to pay to participate in these tournaments. That would be like LeBron James paying to play in a basketball game. Let me break down the tournament style for you. Bowling tournaments will start with a set number of participants who will gain points based on how they bowl. If they bowl over 200, they get points based on how much they bowl over 200. For example, if they bowl a 250, they would get 50 points. These points will determine if they move on in the tournament or not. This goes on and on until the winner is determined.
This is why bowling is the hardest league to become a professional in. Bowlers need to be very determined and need to practice and train everyday or else they will not win a tournament. For other sport leagues, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose your game because you are already on the team and are already a professional.
Professional bowling is also not very rewarding for the amount of effort and training that needs to go into it. According to ZipRecruiter, the average salary for a professional bowler is only $42,254. Bowlers also get sponsorships and some even have YouTube channels to increase their net worth, however, that first number is just based on winnings from tournaments. Also, it is essential to point out that if a bowler does not place high enough in a tournament, they will not get paid for it.
Professionals in other sports can get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars just to sit on the bench and not play. Also, just to show the vast difference between a bowler’s salary, $42,254, we can compare it to other sports leagues. According to Forbes, the average football player in 2016 earned $2.1 million, the average baseball player earned $4.4 million, and the average basketball player earned $6.2 million. The highest paid bowler, who is Walter Ray Williams earned a career total of $4.8 million, which is only a little bit higher than what an average baseball player made in one year.
Personally, learning about all of these differences just made me appreciate professional bowlers even more. They really have such a great love and passion for the game and they do not care about the money aspect of it, they simply just love to bowl.
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