How the salaries are estimated

Two kinds of figure appear on this site, and every one is labelled. A Reported salary was published by a named outlet; an Estimate is ours, and comes with a range.

1. Reported salaries come first

We collect salary figures from newspapers, sports sites and podcasts that name a player, a club and a season. Each figure keeps its source, date and link. When several outlets report the same player-season we take the median of the strongest figures; when they disagree we show the range and every source. A figure with one source says single source.

• Net by default. European basketball salaries are normally quoted net (what the player receives). A figure published as gross is converted with an approximate national tax factor (Spain ×0.53, Italy ×0.56, France ×0.60, Germany ×0.55, Greece ×0.56, Türkiye ×0.65 …) and marked converted from gross.
• Currencies. US-dollar figures are converted at one rate per season (1.08 / 1.16 / 1.17 USD per EUR for 2024-25 / 2025-26 / 2026-27). Monthly figures are multiplied by 12; a multi-year total is divided by its years when the years are stated.
• Not salaries. Offers, buyouts and rumours are listed on the player page but never used as the salary.
• Weak sources. A figure whose only source is a low-reliability outlet (for example a betting-affiliate blog) is shown as an estimate with a ±30% range, not as reported.
• Paywalls. We use free pages only, and we do not copy any outlet's list: each figure appears on the player's page with a link to where it was published.
• AI answers are never a source. Every figure comes from a page that was opened and read.

2. Estimates for everyone else

Most EuroLeague salaries are never published. For those players we start from the club's net player payroll as published by the press (the BasketNews tracker first, Gazzetta where it adds a club) and share it out within the roster:

salary_i = residual payroll × w_i / Σ w_j,   w = exp(β · x)

• Residual payroll. When some salaries at a club are reported, only what is left (payroll minus the reported salaries) is shared among the players without a figure. This is more accurate than sharing the whole payroll (median error 21.4–22.8% against 28.8%). If the reported salaries already add up to nearly the whole payroll, each remaining player keeps at least half of his blind share.
• What x contains. Minutes per game, share of games played and started, PIR per game, the previous season's PIR and minutes, whether he played in the EuroLeague the year before, age (and age²), whether he is a local player, a local aged 24 or younger, or American.
• How β is fitted. Ordinary least squares on log salary with a fixed effect per club-season, on the 15 club-seasons where reported salaries cover at least 90% of minutes (2024-25 MCO, 2024-25 OLY, 2024-25 PAN, 2024-25 ZAL, 2025-26 HTA, 2025-26 MCO, 2025-26 OLY, 2025-26 PAN, 2025-26 PRS, 2025-26 TEL, 2025-26 ZAL, 2026-27 HTA, 2026-27 OLY, 2026-27 PAN, 2026-27 TEL).
• The range. We show the point value and ±30%, the model's typical error. Estimates are rounded (to €10k below €1M, €50k above).
• Minors. Players under 18 get no money figure, reported or estimated.

What the β say, in short: more minutes and a higher PIR (this season and last) mean a bigger share; at the same minutes and PIR an older player earns more (reputation, earlier contracts), up to the mid-thirties; and at the same output, local players and Americans earn somewhat less than other foreigners.

3. Club budgets and payrolls

For EuroLeague clubs, the net payroll comes from the press trackers and, where a league publishes it, from official filings (LNB in France, BBL in Germany). Other leagues come from official league tables, club accounts and shareholder meetings, and press reports. When outlets disagree we show every figure and lead with a range; tags say what a figure covers (plan or actual, first team only, gross club cost, one funding source only …). Figures in other currencies are converted at approximate rates for comparison; the original amount is always shown.

4. Where the model is weak

• Young local players are overestimated.
• Stars at clubs with no published salaries are underestimated, by about 17–25%.
• Players on old contracts who broke out later look underpaid to the model (their salary was set before the breakout).
• Clubs whose payroll the press disagrees on (Panathinaikos and Hapoel Tel Aviv 2026-27) carry that uncertainty into every estimate.
• 2026-27 stats are a snapshot after about nine rounds.

Numbers for all of this are on the validation page. The salary ranges by player type are on a separate page: they are context, not the estimate.

5. Updates

Figures are not scraped. New data arrives as a reviewed data drop, the site is rebuilt from it, and the change is logged in the changelog. Stats are a EuroLeague snapshot (31 Oct 2026). See a figure that is wrong? Send a correction.