When Warner Bros.-Disney took over the World Cup from Red Bull, it promised expanded coverage and an all-round elevation of mountain biking’s premier race series. A couple years in, WBD says it is delivering.
But are athletes seeing any difference? And does it compare to what other sports get in prize money? Looking at three of 2025 best athletes, downhill and XCO, it’s not even close.
An odd comparison, at first blush
Credit where credit’s due, the impetus for this story, other than the looming 2026 season, is an Instagram post and Wyn Masters’ reply to that post, comparing those figures to decidedly smaller amount Jackson Goldstone earned for his staggeringly successful 2025 season.
In a post likely trolling professional darts, and arguing that triathletes deserve more, 247.Endurance posted the prize money of Luke Littler, a prodigious darts player, or thrower, or whatever they want to be called. Below that, the annual prize money earned by top triathlete (and former Tour de France pretender) Kristian Blummenfelt. The difference was staggering.
While fact checking 247.Endurance’s numbers tempers the difference quite a bit, the most we can find Littler making in prize money in 2025 is £660,000. Converting that to Euro, which will make sense to you soon, still puts Littler in the range of €760,500. Blummenfelt pulled in, by 247.Endurance’s stats, USD 353,500 (or roughly €303,800).
Wyn Masters guessed the Canadian’s prize money, from a season where he won the World Cup and world championships at… €30,000.
That can’t be right, we thought? So we checked the rules and did some math.
Pause. Why darts?
As many pointed out in the 247.Endurance post, comparing tri to darts seemed a lot like rage-baiting. Or at least, click-bait. Either because a tri site comparing those figures implies that, charitably, they think tri is worth more or, uncharitably, they think darts should be worth less.
Why not compare it to hockey? Or football? Or the other football?
So why wade into this debate? Well, Littler is a young star redefining darts. And Jackson Goldstone is a, well, a young star that many – including his rivals – see as redefining downhill mountain biking. And so we’re entirely clear, our argument is not against Littler’s earnings. We think it’s…
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