Famous Sport Celebrity Engagements – When Love, Money and Betting Collide: Part 1

Author: Sam Davies

From Taylor and Travis to Posh and Becks, sports stars are no strangers to romantic dalliances with celebrity A-listers; here’s a run-through of some of the most famous examples, plus a look into the exorbitant sums they each splashed out on their engagement rings.

When Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce began dating Taylor Swift, the story quickly outgrew the world of sport. Their relationship dominated entertainment news, drove NFL viewing figures to record highs, and even sparked discussions in betting shops. Many fans were left asking the same question online: are Taylor and Travis engaged? Now, with their engagement confirmed, the Kelce-Swift partnership is being treated not just as a love story but as a global cultural event. Some sportsbooks opened markets on the couple’s future – wedding dates, baby names, even the possibility of a breakup – all evidence of a new red-hot power couple.

But the Kelce–Swift pairing is not an isolated case. Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez’s engagement drew headlines recently for the extravagance of the ring, reported to be among the most expensive ever owned. Long before them, David Beckham and Victoria Adams – aka Posh Spice – set the standard for high-profile marriages, turning their 1999 wedding into a spectacle covered by media outlets worldwide. Serena Williams, Michael Jordan and Tom Brady all represent further examples of celebrity athlete couples whose engagements became newsworthy beyond the boundaries of their respective games.

What makes these stories so captivating is that they extend far beyond the traditional romance narrative. They are a fusion of wealth, fame and branding power. For fans, the interest is not only in who marries whom, but also in what it says about the broader world of celebrity culture.

So, let’s explore some of the most famous sports celebrity engagements, charting the timelines of these relationships, prying into the financial details behind them, and considering how sportsbooks have found ways to turn them into lucrative betting opportunities.

1. Travis Kelce & Taylor Swift: The Power Couple That Became a Market

Few celebrity pairings have captured public imagination quite like Taylor and Travis. The NFL star and global pop icon first made headlines in September 2023 when Swift appeared at a Kansas City Chiefs game. What began as speculation quickly became one of the most talked-about relationships in recent memory, with paparazzi photos, joint appearances and countless headlines cementing them as America’s favorite new couple. The Travis Kelce Taylor Swift engagement has since become a global talking point, blending sports, music, and media into one of the year’s biggest stories.

Timeline of the Relationship

Kelce once joked on his podcast about trying (and failing) to give Swift a friendship bracelet with his number on it during her Eras Tour stop in Kansas City. Then, in late summer 2023, the two were spotted together, and Swift’s presence at NFL games soon became a recurring spectacle. In February ’24, Swift was seen cheering Kelce on at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. Rumors of an engagement began circulating in 2025, with fans speculating about everything from ring size to wedding dates.

• Taylor Swift Engagement Ring: $250,000 - $500,000

While no official ring has been confirmed, jewelry experts have speculated that Kelce, whose NFL salary sits at around $17 million per year, spent between $250,000 and $500,000 on an engagement ring for Swift, equivalent to 2-3% of his annual salary. The ring is a luxury most people could never dream of, but for Kelce, it’s a manageable splurge in line with the emerging celebrity trend for big rocks.

• Betting Markets on Love

Major sportsbooks in the US – including BetRivers, Caesars and Borgata – have already created many novelty betting markets around Taylor and Travis. Fans can wager on the month of a potential wedding, whether they’ll announce a pregnancy before the ceremony, or even if the relationship will end before they come to tie the knot. For example, BetRivers reportedly offered odds on a 2026 wedding, pricing a spring ceremony as the most likely outcome. While these markets are typically low-stakes and designed more for entertainment than serious gambling, they reflect just how much the couple’s relationship has become a public commodity.

• Cultural & Media Impact

Kelce and Swift’s relationship demonstrates how celebrity romances can intersect with broader industries, from sports broadcasting (NFL games featuring Swift saw spikes in viewership among women) to fashion, jewelry, and now even gambling. The anticipation around their engagement isn’t just about romance; it’s about what it represents in cultural and commercial terms. Their relationship is a reminder that, in today’s world, the private lives of stars often become global spectacles, complete with betting slips attached.

2. Cristiano Ronaldo & Georgina Rodríguez: A Glamorous Engagement

Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the most recognizable athletes in the world, and his relationship with Spanish-Argentine model Georgina Rodríguez has been under the spotlight since the beginning. The pair met in 2016 at a Gucci store in Madrid, where Rodríguez was working as a shop assistant. What started as a chance encounter quickly grew into a long-term relationship marked by luxury, travel and excess. The couple is raising five children, including two they’ve had together, plus the three others that CR7 fathered through surrogate mothers.

Timeline of the Relationship

Ronaldo and Rodríguez began dating in 2016, and their romance moved quickly into the public eye. Rodríguez stood by Ronaldo during his transfer from Real Madrid to Juventus in 2018, then later to Manchester United and now Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia. While rumors began circulating as early as 2018, Christiano Ronaldo engagement was confirmed in 2025. Since then, speculation about the wedding has remained high among tabloids, though no official date has been announced.

• Georgina and Ronaldo Engagement Ring: $3,000,000 - $6,000,000

When the engagement was confirmed, media outlets estimated that Ronaldo gifted Rodríguez a ring worth something between $3 and $6 million. The piece is believed to be a 30-carat diamond. For many, it symbolized not just love but also the opulence associated with Ronaldo’s lifestyle.

• Ring Cost vs. Earnings

To put the numbers in perspective: the footballer earns a reported $211 million a year at Al Nassr, not including endorsements and sponsorships. That means the cost of the Cristiano Ronaldo engagement ring amounts to just 1.42%–2.84% of his annual salary – making Kelce look like the more generous fiancé in comparison. To Ronaldo, the ring was a fraction of his paycheck; to most, it would represent a lifetime’s earnings.

• Cultural & Media Impact

Ronaldo and Rodríguez’s engagement highlights how sports stars’ personal lives often extend far beyond the pitch. The ring’s jaw-dropping value became a viral talking point on social media, where fans compared the jewel to famous rings worn by celebrities such as Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian. The story also fueled discussions around the extravagance of professional athletes and the wider culture of wealth flaunted through jewelry and weddings.

While their engagement has not attracted the betting markets in the same way as Kelce and Swift’s, Ronaldo and Rodríguez’s story exemplifies how sports celebrity relationships can captivate audiences worldwide. The combination of football’s biggest star with a partner who has built her own fame – through modelling, brand partnerships and a Netflix reality series – has created a public fascination that extends far beyond sport.

David Beckham & Victoria Beckham: From Football Pitch to Pop Stardom

Few celebrity couples have achieved the same cultural impact as David and Victoria Beckham, also known as Posh and Becks. The duo epitomized late-1990s glamour and has since built an enduring marriage and a global business empire. Their engagement remains one of the most iconic in sports history, not just for its symbolism but for how it foreshadowed the blending of sports, fashion and pop culture in the access-saturated era that was the 2000s.

Timeline of the Relationship

David Beckham, then a rising star at Manchester United, and Victoria Adams, better known as Posh Spice from the Spice Girls, met in 1997 at a charity football match. Their relationship immediately drew frenzied tabloid attention, with media outlets fascinated by the union of football’s golden boy and contemporary pop music’s most fashionable figure. They announced their engagement in January 1998, just under a year after meeting, and married in July 1999 in a lavish ceremony at Luttrellstown Castle in Ireland.

• The Ring: £65,000

Victoria’s original engagement ring was a marquise-cut diamond estimated to be worth around £65,000 at the time, a modest sum compared to today’s celebrity standards, but a remarkable investment in the late 1990s. Interestingly, Victoria has since become known for her vast collection of engagement rings: she is thought to have owned more than a dozen over the years, ranging from emeralds to sapphires, gifted by David throughout their marriage. Collectively, her ring collection is valued in the millions.

• Ring Cost vs. Earnings

In 1998, Beckham’s annual salary at Manchester United was approximately £1.2 million. This means his initial £65,000 investment in Victoria’s ring equated to around 5% of his yearly salary, which is actually more significant, proportionally, than the gestures of modern athletes like Ronaldo or Kelce. For Beckham, it represented a meaningful personal commitment at a time when he was still climbing the ranks toward superstardom.

• Cultural & Media Impact

The Beckham engagement was not just a personal milestone; it was a global media event. Their 1999 wedding featured golden thrones, matching ivory outfits, and exclusive media rights reportedly sold for £1 million. This set the tone for their relationship as a cultural juggernaut, one that would shape fashion, advertising, and celebrity branding for decades.

Victoria’s transformation into a fashion designer and David’s evolution into a global ambassador for football, style and business were all foreshadowed by the spectacle of their engagement. Their pairing made clear that a sports engagement could transcend romance, becoming a brand-building moment in its own right.

Why Famous Sports Engagements Captivate the World?

From Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s media-fueled romance to Cristiano Ronaldo’s multimillion-dollar ring for Georgina Rodríguez, and David and Victoria Beckham’s culture-shaping union, these engagements show how love stories involving sports icons often become global events. They blend fame, wealth, and even betting buzz into moments that transcend romance. And as we’ll see in part two, Serena Williams, Michael Jordan, and Tom Brady added their own unforgettable chapters to the world of famous sports engagements.