--- title: Brexit Costs Serena Williams $262,600 Due to Pound Crash description: Brexit's crash of the British pound meant Serena Williams got a pay cut this year, despite having more prize money than last year, in pounds. authors: - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 160 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/ewolffmann former_staff: true published: '2016-07-11T12:59:43.000Z' modified: '2016-07-11T12:59:43.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - Brexit - pubdesk - Sports - Wimbledon word_count: 245 canonical: https://money.com/serena-williams-brexit-pound-prize-money-loss/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Day Twelve: The Championships - Wimbledon 2016](https://img.money.com/2016/07/gettyimages-545690634.jpg) *Serena Williams wins her 22nd Major title at Wimbledon on July 9, 2016..* The words Brexit and sports may seldom be spoken in the same breath, but the international nature of tennis puts it directly in the line of impact--especially when the prize money is paid out in British pounds. Saturday's Wimbledon winner Serena Williams celebrated with a cool 2.0 million pounds--up 110,000 pounds over last year's payout. But while this sounds like a wonderful 5% raise, it was actually a bitter drop over last year, due to the pound's crash. Last July, the pound was worth [$1.5516](https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/best-exchange-rates/british-pound-to-us-dollar-exchange-rate-on-2015-07-10), giving Serena a prize of $2,929,500 for her 21st Major title. But today's value of the pound at $1.30 means she will only walk home with $2,597,400. So what should have been a massive 5% raise turned out to be a $332,100 pay cut--around 11% less than last year. If she was so willing, Williams *could* keep her winnings in pounds and hope for a recovery to recoup some of her winnings. Had she played before the Brexit vote, a month before when the [pound was worth $1.43](https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/best-exchange-rates/british-pound-to-us-dollar-exchange-rate-on-2016-06-12)\--she would have come away with $2,860,000--$262,600 more than what she got. Depending on how much earlier she played, the difference could haave [been as much as $380,000](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/brexit-at-wimbledon-vote-costs-serena-380000-in-prize-money-2016-07-11). If the pound rebounds to its pre-Brexit value, she will still be down from last year, but not by quite as much. At the end of the day, what is the difference *really* between $2.6 and $2.9 million? Maybe very little, or maybe [one of these](http://www.caranddriver.com/aston-martin/vanquish). ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/serena-williams-brexit-pound-prize-money-loss/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Forex", "item": "https://money.com/forex/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Brexit Costs Serena Williams $262,600 Due to Pound Crash" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/serena-williams-brexit-pound-prize-money-loss/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/serena-williams-brexit-pound-prize-money-loss/", "name": "Brexit Costs Serena Williams $262,600 Due to Pound Crash", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-07-11T12:59:43.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/serena-williams-brexit-pound-prize-money-loss/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/serena-williams-brexit-pound-prize-money-loss/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-07-11T12:59:43.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Brexit Costs Serena Williams $262,600 Due to Pound Crash", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/07/gettyimages-545690634.jpg", "width": 5472, "height": 3648, "caption": "Day Twelve: The Championships - Wimbledon 2016" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ethan Wolff-Mann", "url": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/ewolffmann" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-07-11T12:59:43.000Z", "description": "Brexit's crash of the British pound meant Serena Williams got a pay cut this year, despite having more prize money than last year, in pounds.", "abstract": "Brexit's crash of the British pound meant Serena Williams got a pay cut this year, despite having more prize money than last year, in pounds.", "@id": "https://money.com/serena-williams-brexit-pound-prize-money-loss/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-07-11T12:59:43.000Z", "wordCount": 245, "keywords": [ "Brexit", "pubdesk", "Sports", "Wimbledon" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Foreign exchange market", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_exchange_market" ] } ] } ] } ```