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Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha

IT’S been a rags-to-riches story, and Leicester City could be in line to pocket as much as $220 million for the club’s fairytale first English Premier League title win.

The Foxes sealed the title without kicking a ball Monday as Chelsea’s revival in a 2-2 draw with Tottenham at Stamford Bridge put the title mathematically beyond Spurs’ reach with two games still to play.

And analysts at sports data and marketing firm Repucom have estimated the previously unheralded football club could land a sizable windfall off the back of the unlikely triumph, having been a 5,000-1 shot at the start of the season.

Leicester, which narrowly avoided relegation to England’s second tier a year ago, will bank over $132 million for winning the league.

The manner of Leicester’s remarkable triumph also makes the club infinitely more marketable and hence able to earn more from any  potential commercial deals.

Qualification for the Champions League, Repucom estimated, could amount to a participation bonus of $48.5 million and an additional $4.4 million from a performance bonus.

“The figures Leicester City could be making are in large part thanks to the Premier League revenue share, which is split relatively evenly across the league and from Champions League qualification,” Repucom UK&I head of consulting Spencer Nolan said in a statement.

“Taking into account teams with similar size stadium capacities as Leicester’s King Power Stadium and the effect winning the domestic league had on teams who were not favorites to do so, such as Atlético Madrid in 2014, match day and commercial revenues could well be worth an increased $14-$22 million to the club.”

The growth of Leicester’s global fan base will also offer opportunities to the club as it seeks to maximize the financial effects of the league title success.

Leicester’s Facebook followers overall have risen by more than 500% this season, with 16.7% of that fan base coming from Algeria as a result of Riyad Mahrez winning the PFA Player of the Year award.

In Thailand — the home of the club’s billionaire Thai owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha — there has been a 117% increase in Facebook followers, as well as a 2,293% increase in Italy, the home of manager Claudio Ranieri.

“The growth in fan base remains central to realizing the club’s full potential as a commercial entity and whilst it is too early to really evaluate the rapidly growing fan bases we are starting to see across Asia for example, social media provides us an opportunity to start to quantify this surge,” Nolan added. —CNN