The Six Nations is one of the most prestigious rugby competitions in the world. Due to that, the prize money really helps the teams involved. So exactly how much money do the Six Nations winners get?
How much does the winning Six Nations team get? The winning Six Nations team gets £6 million, if they are able to complete the Grand Slam by winning all 5 of their matches. The total value of all Six Nations prize money is £17 million. The second placed team will get £3.5 million and it is a sliding scale down from there.
| Position | Prize Money |
| Grand Slam Winners | £6m |
| 2nd Place | £3.5m |
| 3rd Place | £2.5m |
| 4th Place | £2m |
| 5th Place | £1.5m |
| 6th Place | £1m |
| Total Prize Money | £17m |
The prize money in the Six Nations tends to change quite often depending on the revenue that the Six Nations can create throughout the tournament. This figure has certainly increased since rugby has become professional and the most recent figures are records for the Six Nations.
The current estimates are that the winner of the Six Nations gets £5 million for winning the tournament. This figure will increase if the winning team is able to win all five games and win the Grand Slam. The winning team receives an extra £1 million if they also win the Grand Slam. Taking the 1st prize total to £6 million.
If the Grand Slam is not won then this £1 million will be split equally between all the teams, with each team taking home an additional £200,000. The rest of the prize money is given away in a sliding scale based on performance.
How is the Six Nations prize money split?
The Six Nations prize money is split on a sliding scale based on where each team gets more than the team below them. The entire total of the prize money is £17 million, split in a sliding scale with all of the teams.
The team that wins the Six Nations will receive £5 million. The rest of the teams will then split the remaining money in a sliding scale, with the team that finishes bottom of the league getting just £1 million.
There have been estimations made on how this money is split. It is estimated the team in second gets £3.5 million and the team in third gets £2.5 million. The team in fourth place gets an estimated £2 million, fifth place gets £1.5 million and the sixth-placed team gets £1 million.
This is just an estimate based on previous figures. It is unlikely that this figure will have increased over the last few years so it is probably accurate for the 2023 competition. If not, the figures will be very similar to the system used above.
What do Six Nations teams do with the prize money?
Six Nations teams have a lot of money to use after the competition. It is difficult to know exactly how they split that money. One of the things we do know is that they often some of the prize money with the playing squad.
When Wales won the Six Nations in 2021, their players split £700,000 between them as prize money. It is very common for Six Nations teams to split some of the prize money between the players as a bonus. Some of this money will also help to pay central contracts for teams.
The prize money also helps to cover all of the expenses that each Six Nations team has during the competition. There is quite a lot of staff and travel costs that you don’t think about because you don’t see them. International teams do not have a huge amount of revenue coming in so they need the prize money from the Six Nations.
The Six Nations prize money from the previous year is often used to cover the costs from the next year’s competition. The Six Nations prize money makes up the majority of the team’s income, with even the Rugby World Cup having a smaller prize money fund than the Six Nations.
Who is the highest-paid Six Nations player?
The Six Nations features the very best players from around Europe. Due to the competition featuring world-class talent, there is a lot of highly paid players. But only one man is the highest-paid player in the Six Nations.
Finn Russell is certainly the highest-paid player in the Six Nations. The Scottish fly-half began his career with Glasgow Warriors. He showed with Glasgow that he was a world-class player and so Russell got plenty of contract offers from some of the richest clubs around Europe.
Russell decided to go with Racing 92 who reportedly pays him £900,000 per year which makes him one of the richest rugby players in the world. It is hardly surprising that he is the highest player in the Six Nations.
Russell is truly world-class, being one of the best playmakers on the planet. He is the architect of Racing 92 and Scotland’s attack thanks to his precise passing and brilliant creativity. Not only that, but Russell can also be one of the best goal-kickers in the world, slotting the crucial kicks when needed.
Russell may be leaving France after the Rugby World Cup, but he is still going to be one of the highest-paid players in the world. His contract with Bath Rugby is supposed to be worth around £1 million per season which makes him by far the highest-paid player in the Six Nations.
Who owns the Six Nations?
The Six Nations is owned evenly between seven different entities. The first 6/7 of the ownership is evenly between the six teams that make up the Six Nations. For a long time, it was these six teams that owned all of the Six Nations evenly before they all agreed on selling some of the ownership.
The CVC which is a private equity firm invested £365 million in 2021. CVC have over 20 years experience in commercial expansion and so the Six Nations saw it as the perfect partnership to help grow the competition in the future.
So it means that CVC now owns 1/7th of the Six Nations, with the six teams in the competition owning the rest of the tournament. This is unlikely to change in the future as each country needs the revenue from the Six Nations.