The finances of competitive eating

Yesterday, while gloating over Joey Chestnut’s win, Fat City forgot to mention that for his 10 minutes of effort, he walked home with a cool $20,000.

That may seem like a lot, but it’s becoming common for competitive-eating contests to include a large purse. Not only does it increase the suspense but it entices big names such as Chestnut and his rival, Takeru Kobayashi, to enter.

Major League Eating (MLE) holds nearly 100 sanctioned events every year and nearly all offer a cash prize of some sort. But unlike other sports, it depends mostly on one source of revenue. Forbes has the nitty-gritty details but because MLE doesn’t have ticket revenue or a television contract, it has to rely on sponsors. Hence the Nathan’s in the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest.

The sponsor who puts up the most money is hamburger chain Krystal.