How Premier League prize money is distributed

Premier League prize money is the league's biggest annual payment to clubs, and it is about to clear £3bn for the first time. The 2025/26 distribution pushed the total paid to the 20 clubs above £3bn, up from roughly £2.8bn the previous season. But the phrase "prize money" misleads, because the money is designed so that finishing position decides only a slice of it. How the pot is built, and the equal share that dwarfs the actual prize, is what shapes club budgets across the division.

The prize is the least interesting part of Premier League prize money. Around two-thirds of broadcast income is shared equally between all 20 clubs before a single merit pound is calculated. The champions in 2023/24 collected about £176m in total distributions, while the bottom club took roughly £110m. So the entire competitive prize, spread across nineteen places, is worth less than the gap that a televised appearance or two can create, which is why the table of income never matches the league table.

How much Premier League prize money is paid each season

The total distribution for 2024/25 came to £2.834bn, just below the £2.848bn paid the season before. The 2025/26 season is the milestone: total Premier League distributions passed £3bn for the first time, up from about £2.8bn. Arsenal, champions of the 2025/26 season, were expected to earn about £198.7m in broadcast revenues, the largest projected figure for any club.

The money is not a single payment. It is three streams paid on top of each other: an equal share handed to every club, merit payments ranked by final position, and facility fees counted per televised appearance. The league calls the structure the most equitable distribution of funds of any major European league.

The equal share is the biggest slice

Around two-thirds of broadcast income is shared equally, and that equal share is what keeps every club in the division financially stable regardless of where it finishes. In 2023/24 the equal elements added up to roughly £95m per club: about £31.2m from the domestic rights deal, about £55.7m from international rights, and about £8.2m from central commercial income. Because this slice is identical for all 20 clubs, it rewrites the normal logic of prize money: a club fighting relegation banks the same base as the league leaders.

The equality is deliberate. The Premier League sells its broadcast rights as a single pool so that the smallest club in the division benefits from games involving the biggest, and the distribution formula is built to preserve that principle through the equal share.

Merit payments reward finishing position

The competitive element sits on top of the equal share. Merit payments are paid on a sliding scale from first to twentieth, and in 2023/24 each league position was worth about £2.8m in merit money, with the figure around £3.1m per place in 2022/23 and close to £3m per position in 2024/25. For 2025/26 the merit ladder ran from roughly £54m for the champions down to about £2.7m for the club that finished twentieth.

That ladder looks steep in isolation, but set against an equal share of about £95m it is modest. The champions' advantage over the bottom club, in merit terms, is roughly the size of what several extra televised appearances can add through facility fees, and it is much smaller than the difference between being in the Premier League and being outside it.

Facility fees can flip the income table

Facility fees are paid for every live televised appearance, so a club that is shown often can out-earn a club that finishes above it. In 2023/24 Arsenal appeared in 31 televised matches and collected about £26.9m in facility money alone. A club sitting mid-table can pull ahead of a rival several places higher simply by being selected for more live games, which is why club accounts, not the league table, are the true ranking of Premier League income.

The mechanism repeats every year because televised picks respond to supporter interest rather than league position. Two clubs separated by a couple of places in the table, but by ten or more televised appearances, can have their whole income order reversed by the time the facility fees are counted.

What the money means for the clubs

Premier League prize money is the revenue floor for every club in the division. The structure guarantees every club more than £100m in central distributions, so it funds the squad costs that the Profitability and Sustainability Rules now police, and it is the reason a club that drops out of the league receives parachute payments to soften the fall. The difference between the richest club and the poorest club in the league is small by the standards of European football, which is exactly what the distribution design intends.

The 2025/26 figure above £3bn also sets the budget baseline for newly promoted clubs as they build squads for the following season. Their central income starts close to the champions', and the guides on promotion from the Championship and on the PSR rules explain what happens next, because the money arrives before the recruitment does. That is how Premier League prize money works in practice: it is a floor for everyone, a ladder for the middle, and only a small part of it is actually a prize.

Key takeaways

• Premier League prize money is paid as three streams: an equal share, merit payments and facility fees, with around two-thirds of broadcast income shared equally.
• Total distributions passed £3bn for the first time in 2025/26, up from about £2.8bn, with Arsenal expected to earn about £198.7m.
• The equal share is the biggest slice: roughly £95m per club in 2023/24 across domestic, international and commercial broadcast income.
• Merit payments move about £2.8m to £3.1m per league position, small next to an equal share of around £95m.
• Facility fees for televised appearances can flip the income table, which is why income order rarely matches the league table.

FAQ

Is Premier League prize money paid to the champions only? No. All 20 clubs receive a distribution, and around two-thirds of the broadcast money is shared equally, with merit payments and facility fees layered on top. The champions receive the most, but every club is guaranteed more than £100m in central distributions.

How much does winning the Premier League pay? The 2025/26 champions were expected to earn about £198.7m in broadcast revenues, and the 2023/24 champions collected about £176m in total distributions. The figure differs each season because the equal share, merit ladder and facility fees all move.

What are facility fees in the Premier League? Facility fees are payments for every live televised appearance, added on top of the equal share and merit payments. Arsenal collected about £26.9m from 31 televised games in 2023/24, and the fees can push a club above rivals that finished higher.

How much does last place get in the Premier League? The bottom club still receives a full distribution. Sheffield United, twentieth in 2023/24, collected about £110m, with a merit payment of roughly £2.8m layered on top of the same equal share as the champions.

Do relegated clubs keep Premier League prize money? The distribution belongs to the clubs in the league for that season, and relegated clubs then receive parachute payments, a separate system explained in the parachute payments guide. The rules for staying up and going down are covered in the relegation guide.