The Six Kings Slam is back this week as part of Riyadh Season, and the excitement is already building. The action unfolds at The Venue, an 8,000-seat arena buzzing from October 15 to 18. The event is backed by His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, Netflix, and the Saudi Tennis Federation, bringing together sport and entertainment on a grand stage.

The star lineup features Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz, and Stefanos Tsitsipas. With a jaw-dropping prize pot on the line, the exhibition is shaping up as serious competition for even the ATP’s biggest tournaments.

How much is the prize money for the 2025 Six Kings Slam?

Last year’s edition was pure spectacle, stacked with a $13.5 million prize pool that guaranteed every player $1.5 million. The champion score? A jaw-dropping $6 million after adding a $4.5 million bonus to that base check. Jannik Sinner took home that massive prize after beating Carlos Alcaraz in a thrilling final. Fans also got a heart-tugging moment as Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal shared the stage one last time, wrapping up twenty years of iconic battles just before Nadal announced his retirement.

This year’s event sticks to the same formula, $6 million waiting for whoever lifts the trophy. No ATP ranking points, no head-to-head tallies, just pure, firework-filled tennis fun. Matches roll out Wednesday and Thursday, players rest Friday, and the final showdown hits Saturday since ATP rules keep exhibitions from happening three straight days. Still, with such eye-popping sums in play, it’s no wonder the rest of the tennis world is asking if this prize money changes everything.

A look at grand slam’s prize money compared to the Six Kings Slam

Everyone knows the Grand Slams are tennis royalty. They hand out 2000 ranking points, hold generations of history, and deliver some of the richest prize pools in sports. These four majors are the proving grounds where champions earn their legacy. Still, crunch the numbers and Riyadh’s new exhibition steals the spotlight, topping even the Slams for sheer payout. That’s wild, considering the majors stretch over two weeks and test every ounce of endurance.

Just look at the breakdown. The US Open singles winners each bank $5 million from a total purse of around $90 million. Wimbledon crowns walk away with £3 million, about $3.99 million. The Australian Open offers A$3.5 million, roughly $2.28 million, and Roland-Garros champions take home €2.55 million, nearly $2.96 million. All massive numbers, until you see what the Six Kings Slam is offering for a fraction of the workload.

If the champion in Riyadh plays only two matches, clocking roughly 180 minutes on court, the math gets jaw-dropping fast. That’s about $33,333 earned every minute. Even if the winner battles through three matches, around 270 minutes, they’re still pocketing roughly $22,222 per minute. That’s the kind of payday that makes even Slam winners do a double take.

Stack that against the US Open grind, seven matches, each averaging 165 minutes, a total of 1,155 minutes, and you start to see the gap. The champion’s $5 million prize works out to just $4,329 per minute. The Six Kings Slam may not have the tradition or ranking glory, but when it comes to pure earning power per swing of the racket, it’s in a league of its own. And the Masters aren’t faring much better on that front either.

Six Kings Slam’s prize pot exceeds ATP’s 1000 event

The ATP Masters tournaments throw around big money, but no single winner walks away with anything close to the Six Kings Slam payout. Indian Wells and Miami headline the list with more than $19 million each in total prize money. Madrid and Rome both top $9.3 million, while Monte Carlo trails just slightly behind in euros. Across the tour stops in Toronto, Montreal, Cincinnati, and Shanghai, totals hover near $9.2 million. Even on the WTA side, Cincinnati shines with a $5.1 million pool.

So far this season, eight Masters have wrapped up, leaving one last men’s 1000 showdown at the Paris Masters in early November. The event offers a €5,950,575 purse (about $6.9 million) which is a 2.96% bump from last year. The runner-up lands €501,880, roughly $582,665, another small rise from 2024.

Put it side by side with the Six Kings Slam’s $6 million winner’s prize, and suddenly those ATP payouts look tame. Grand Slams and Masters deliver prestige, but shorter matches mean smaller returns per minute. Best-of-3 matches usually run around 90 minutes, while Slam finals stretch to roughly 165 minutes. Run the math, and the Six Kings Slam champion cashes in at a rate no regular tour event can match.

It’s flashy. It’s new. And players can’t help wondering: Is it just big money grabbing attention, or is there something more behind the hype?

How is the Six Kings Slam giving more stability to players

The prize money debate is nothing new, but it’s heating up again as Saudi Arabia digs deeper into global sports. World No. 12 Casper Ruud said last year he actually turned down invitations to compete there. He wants the human rights conversation to be fair across all borders. “You can definitely discuss China and human rights in China, but we go there every year,” he told Danish outlet SpilXperten. “If you want to put Saudi Arabia as a controversial country, there should be other countries as well that should be mentioned, and we don’t mention those.”

Not everyone’s turning down that kind of cash, though. Taylor Fritz has been blunt about what’s motivating players to show up. “I’d love for them to show me a tournament where you can go play three matches — well, for the top two seeds, two matches — and potentially make $6 million,” Fritz joked in a video chat from Riyadh on Tuesday. “I’d love to hear that from them.”

Here’s how it works: six players split the pot, with each guaranteed $1.5 million even if they lose their first match. That’s serious money just for showing up. Compare that with a Grand Slam like the US Open, where prize pools stretch into tens of millions but get divided among 128 singles players. A first-round loser in New York this year earns $110,000, a solid payout but nowhere near the Saudi event’s scale.

Even defending champion and World No. 2 Jannik Sinner admits the stakes are impossible to ignore. “The money is nothing we’re trying to hide. We know how much is at stake here, and it would be a lie if I told you it wasn’t a motivation,” said Sinner, who’s fresh off winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon and reaching two more Slam finals against Carlos Alcaraz.

The event kicks off tomorrow, October 15, with live coverage streaming on Netflix for the first time ever. Alcaraz and Djokovic skip straight to the semifinals on Thursday, and by Saturday night, two finalists will be fighting for the $6 million crown. Who’s walking out the last king standing?