Private equity cash is fueling consolidation throughout the talent representation business, but CAA remains atop the industry’s leaderboard, managing more than $20 billion in contracts.

Each of the 10 times that Forbes has ranked the most valuable sports agencies—starting in 2013 and most recently in 2022—CAA has come out on top. But if the outcome is beginning to feel a bit preordained, what it means to be North America’s largest agency continues to grow—and grow, and grow.

CAA once again takes the No. 1 spot in the ranking on the basis of its $1.14 billion in maximum commissions, up 18% from three years ago. The Los Angeles-based agency now has more than 3,000 clients for talent representation and oversees an estimated $15.9 billion in team-sport playing contracts and $4.59 billion in non-playing contracts, including endorsements as well as its coaching and sports media groups.

“The sports business has grown so much just in the past three or four years that people want to be in the game,” says Howie Nuchow, co-head of CAA Sports, “and that creates opportunities for smart strategic business decisions.”

Despite CAA’s continued expansion, its rivals have gained some ground. Wasserman and Excel Sports Management—Nos. 2 and 3 across the last five editions of the agency ranking, dating to 2018—have boosted their estimated maximum commissions 31% and 57%, respectively, over the last three years, to $956 million and $783 million. Octagon (No. 4 this year with $463 million in maximum commissions) and Klutch Sports Group (No. 5, $351 million) have experienced even more robust growth—119% and 252%.

Combined, the top 10 North American sports agencies are generating up to $4.61 billion in commissions on more than $72 billion in active contracts under management, with those figures representing rises of 22% and 25% from $3.79 billion and $57.8 billion three years ago.

Years of consolidation preceded that 2022 ranking, and the mega-agencies’ shopping sprees haven’t let up in the years since. For instance, Roc Nation Sports and Klutch parent UTA enhanced their global soccer rosters with deals for Brazil’s TFM and Germany’s ROOF, respectively. You First, which ranked 10th on Forbes’ 2022 agency list, was itself acquired by Hollywood talent agency Gersh last year (and narrowly missed the 2025 agency top 10).

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CAA, meanwhile, has continued its push beyond talent representation—sports, entertainment or otherwise—by absorbing consulting firm Portas and Hanold Associates, which leads searches for human resources executives. Jeff Schwartz, CEO of Excel, which entered on-field NFL representation for the first time with its 2023 purchase of REP 1 Football, says his agency has meetings “probably monthly” to discuss its growth priorities and potential acquisition targets.

But while competition at the top remains fierce—just last week, leading NFL agency Athletes First announced that it had pried away Tory Dandy, CAA’s co-head of football, to become an equity partner—“it’s not just grow to grow,” says Jason Ranne, Wasserman’s president of global talent representation. Agencies are focused on exploiting specific financial opportunities and expanding client services rather than merely keeping up with the Joneses.

“We don’t actually view it as some unusual pace,” Ranne adds of Wasserman, which has either acquired or entered into strategic partnerships with 10 smaller agencies over the last two years, bolstering its hockey group in April with a deal for KO Sports. “It’s just kind of par for the course for us for the last 10 years.”

One other major factor driving the M&A activity has been an influx of institutional investors. At least seven of this year’s top 10 agencies have been backed by private equity or venture capital money in recent years, with Excel currently seeking a new investor as Shamrock Capital considers selling the minority stake it acquired in the firm in 2020. Schwartz, who in addition to his position overseeing Excel comes in at No. 2 in Forbes’ 2025 ranking of sports agents, says he expects the fundraise to close by the end of the year.

“It’s no different than healthcare and the other places where private equity shows up,” Ranne says. “It does tend to push for M&A activities—that’s kind of their bread and butter.”

CAA, which had already been controlled by private equity firm TPG, offered a proof of concept in 2023 when it sold a majority stake in the agency to François-Henri Pinault and his billionaire family’s investment company, Groupe Artémis. The deal reportedly valued the entirety of CAA—including its entertainment business, which is now smaller than the sports side—at roughly $7 billion, a big step up from TPG’s $1.1 billion purchase in 2014.

The most notable change in this year’s agency ranking, however, runs against the consolidation trend. The parent company of WME Sports, which was No. 3 on the 2022 list, went private in a transaction that closed in March and has been forced to divest its football and basketball divisions to avoid violating NFL and NBA conflict-of-interest rules, which do not allow team owners to simultaneously hold a representation business in the sport. (Egon Durban, the billionaire co-CEO of Silver Lake, which led the WME deal, has a stake in the Las Vegas Raiders, and tech billionaire Michael Dell, whose family office invested in the new WME Group, owns a piece of the San Antonio Spurs.)

Sports will remain a focus for WME, which still has a major presence in tennis, golf, action sports and media, although it fell just outside Forbes’ 2025 agency ranking. WME’s former football division, now rebranded as WIN Sports Group, also missed the cut despite Joel Segal landing at No. 14 on Forbes’ agent list. But its newly independent basketball business—using the name WME Basketball, at least temporarily—came in at No. 10 among North American sports agencies, with Bill Duffy at No. 4 on the top agents list.

Among the other changes to the talent representation landscape since Forbes’ last ranking in 2022, virtually all of the top 10 agencies have significantly expanded their college NIL practices—and are seeing an actual financial return, beyond the benefits of cultivating a talent pipeline. “I would say this year it made the move to justifying the effort,” CAA’s Nuchow says. “This is now a whole new budget line item that you hadn’t had before that is millions of dollars.”

Women’s sports are also a new, or renewed, area of focus for much of the industry, even though playing contracts for female athletes remain modest. And while agencies wait for the millions to come for some of those clients, they are benefiting from the rising tide in other ways. “We’re working on the areas where the growth is happening, meaning franchise values,” Nuchow says, noting that CAA advises on media rights and stadium construction.

Beyond talent representation, agencies have been building out their divisions that work with brands, teams and leagues—areas that are excluded from the Forbes ranking but can have superior profit margins. Still, even as sports agencies branch out in new directions—and talent representation becomes a smaller piece of total revenue—they aren’t planning to get out of the business that got them here.

“Talent is in our DNA at Excel, and talent opens the door for so many of these other areas,” Schwartz says. “Could revenues be greater in some other areas? Maybe—but I still think there’s so much to do globally on the talent side that we’re focused on.”

Most Valuable Sports Agencies 2025

📍 Los Angeles

Key Sports: Football, Basketball, Soccer, Baseball, Hockey

Key Clients: Josh Allen, Devin Booker, Sidney Crosby, Jack Grealish, Shohei Ohtani

Estimated Clients: 3,070

Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $15.9 billion

Estimated Non-Playing Contracts Under Management: $4.59 billion

Maximum Commissions: $1.143 billion

📍 Los Angeles

Key Sports: Baseball, Basketball, Soccer, Hockey, Football, Golf, Olympic Sports, Rugby, Action Sports

Key Clients: Maxx Crosby, Katie Ledecky, Connor McDavid, Evan Mobley, Zack Wheeler

Estimated Clients: 4,360

Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $9.52 billion

Estimated Non-Playing Contracts Under Management: $3.07 billion

Maximum Commissions: $956 million

📍 New York City

Key Sports: Basketball, Football, Baseball, Golf

Key Clients: Caitlin Clark, Jared Goff, Nikola Jokic, Cal Raleigh, Tiger Woods

Estimated Clients: 750

Estimated Playing Contracts Under Management: $6.56 billion

Estimated Non-Playing Contracts Under Management: $3.5 billion

Maximum Commissions: $783 million