Lineker, 64, is the largest shareholder of Goalhanger Podcasts and owns a third of the company. The media firm produces a string of the biggest podcasts in the country, including The Rest Is Football, The Rest Is Politics and The Rest Is History.
Goalhanger Podcasts is said to be the largest podcast group outside of the USA, with the company producing the top four shows in the British podcast charts, according to Podwatch.
The shows have gained more than 40 million downloads a month and also appear on YouTube, where they have been viewed more than 80 million times.
According to The Sun, Lineker made an additional £125,000 during Euro 2024 due to the success of the podcasts.
Goalhanger Podcasts receives £45 from advertisers for every 1,000 advert listens. It is estimated that The Rest Is History, which generates 11 million downloads a month as well as 1.2 million YouTube views, makes as much as £500,000 per month through spoken ads from presenters.
Meanwhile, The Rest Is Politics podcast has drawn in 700,000 downloads per episode this year off the back of the UK and USA elections. And Lineker will be cashing the cheques for years to come.
Lineker originally set up Goalhanger Films Ltd with his business partner Tony Pastor in 2014 before the duo moved into podcasts when former radio executive Jack Davenport came on board in 2018.
And explaining the transition, Pastor told Deadline: “We effectively mothballed Films and set up a bespoke company concentrating on podcasts.
“There was a period in which I ran them in tandem, but the growth of podcasts was so explosive and television is challenged, so we’ve now done some housekeeping.”
He added: “We’ve gone from a production company being entirely beholden to commissioners and the budgets of broadcasters to having a degree of self-control, whereby we are self-commissioning.”