Any lover of basketball that is also an active user of Instagram would know that LeBron James is among the top Instagram Rich List. With over 75 million followers and regular posts on Instagram, he has established himself as a social media powerhouse. He makes over $120,000 on every sponsored post he shares with his followers. Despite his activeness on social media, he kept his eldest son, LeBron “Bronny” Raymone James Jr., an American basketball player, from the internet for quite a while.
In 2019, the elder LeBron, through his Instagram handle, @kingjames, announced Bronny’s arrival to social media based on the promise he made to him in 2016. Accompanying the post announcing Bronny’s arrival is a serious threat to haters to “keep off his (Bronny’s) comments.” Bronny, in response, also announced his arrival with a two-word post, “Hey IG.” This simple post coupled with his father’s earlier announcement-cum-endorsement performed great wonders in impacting his follower count positively.
Nothing could be more eventful to Bronny James than his first day on Instagram! Within 24 hours, the 16-year-old basketballer gained a whopping 1 million plus followers. Even as a freshman on Instagram, he seems to be towing his father’s famous footsteps. Well, his father’s role in his social media habits cannot be easily eroded. Even Bronny’s teammate Gabe Cupps felt LeBron’s impact on his followers after his viral moment with the latter.
Unlike his father, Bronny doesn’t seem to have mastered the art of making several posts. This may be a result of his age or limited time in the limelight. Nevertheless, the few posts he makes often get hundreds of thousands of engagements. Some of his photos have over a million likes, and a lot of his highlight videos have been viewed as many as nine million times. As of December 2020, Bronny’s Instagram boasts of 5.8 million followers. It may interest you to find out how much Bronny earns from his Instagram posts and followers. You can find more about this and other celebrities on Online Betting Guide’s research piece where they summed it up to form an insight for you.
Even a seemingly-damaging post he made on his Instagram some months ago where he is smoking marijuana only generated a flood of hilarious comments that increased his profile.
How Bronny’s foray on Instagram may impact his career
Instagram has become the next money-making social media platform through which celebrities make their fortune. Bronny James is not excluded from the list. Usually, we do not seem to be aware that the series of posts made by celebrities serves as the window into their world of earnings. Celebrities earn based on the number of followers they have as well as the number of likes they get on each of their posts.
Does this just start with the celebrities demanding money from Instagram? Of course, no! The secret is this: Instagram has some tracking mechanisms in the forms of analytics and metrics that track the category of people viewing brands’ posts as well as give reports back to the brands. As individuals, the posts we see on a celebrity’s Instagram account, especially about a particular brand, tend to slip into our sub-conscious mind such that they influence our purchasing decision.
As one of the most followed sporting offspring, Lebron James Jr sponges on the reputation of his father who makes over $300,000 for every sponsored Instagram post, making him the NBA‘s highest-paid social media influencer. The growing popularity of Bronny James on Instagram, of course, makes him draw so much attention to himself as his followers are always keen on knowing about his personal life and what he is doing to help his basketball career. While he is not his team’s best player, the hype he garners may earn him a professional career in NBA. This has been his father’s wish, nevertheless.
Unlike his father whose journey to stardom was marked by controversies and uneasiness, the system that governed sports seems to have evolved rapidly in favor of Bronny. For instance, James was suspended by the Ohio High School Athletic Association for accepting two sports jerseys from a Cleveland clothing store. This came a few days after receiving a sports utility vehicle (purchased with a loan) from his mother. Bronny’s high-pacing professional career has had him inked a number of endorsement deals.
Bronny’s partnership with FaZe Clan
Recently, Bronny established an out-of-the-box business relationship with FaZe Clan. FaZe Clan operates primarily as an esports team, sending competitors to big-money tournaments and organizing sponsorship deals. Bronny’s decision to partner with the brand is an indication that, beyond being a basketballer, he is also interested in diversifying his interests by promoting himself as a brand.
FaZe Clan is a gaming organization that is famous for turning young gamers into millionaires by giving them a massive social media presence while also bolstering its brand. Bronny isn’t an exception though he won’t benefit monetarily from the partnership. Nevertheless, by representing the brand officially through an ambassador-like role, the brand will in turn employ their signature aggressiveness in promoting his content to expand his fan base.
According to Social Blade, the announcement of the partnership helped him to gain over 77,000 followers on Instagram. A day after the announcement, his Twitch views shot up 855 percent. The video announcement got more than a million views on Twitter.
Where is the money in the partnership?
As an avid gamer, Bronny is ranked 24th best prospect in the 2023 recruiting rankings of ESPN. Upping his gaming skill qualifies him to accept prize money from winning video game contests — including money from other sources — without affecting his eligibility to play college basketball. This is sequel to a new California law, known as the Fair Pay To Play Act, that is bided to become effective in 2023.
The new law will allow college athletes to be compensated by sponsors as well as other organizations – especially video game makers – that seek to use their name, image, or likeness without risking a loss of their NCAA eligibility. FaZe Clan had compensated a number of individuals that had been a part of their esports teams in games such as “Call of Duty,” “Fortnite,” “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,” and “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.”
There’s a lot of celebrities that has made a lot of money on social media, but there’s also a lot that has lost their money, check them out here.