I think pro badminton players are mostly just sponsored. Any money they make as a national player is mostly for living expenses. More similar to olympic ahtletes than "pro" tennis or other sports where there is huge prize money at stake.
about an average (pls/minus) usd20k for the winner of an international event, somewhat similar to table tennis player. why, you plan on switching to a more lucrative sport?
Avnish, tks arief for clearing that up. the cost/reward ratio for badminton is somewhat incomparable to other sports. i mean, when someone just started out w/o equipments sponsorship and monetary incentives, the cost could be too much for an ordinary person to cope up with. specially, the shuttles and to a lesser extent racquets (unless you break it every other tube of shuttles used). now, don't get me wrong, we are all from different backgrounds, however, comparatively speaking, badminton and table tennis does not pay a lot. US$20,000 can be a lot of money in some places (for some people) but it is nothing compared to soccer, basketball, golf, tennis, etc. i would be inclined to say that being in the top 20 consistently can be pretty lucrative (in the sport of badminton). good luck!
It also comes down to how much the country weight the sport. If it is a popular sport, usually the government will subsidize substantially for the players.
one of the most important things as a pro athlete is having a good manager take kimbo slice for example, his manager is extremely good at promoting him and "selling" him, since he's started out as a backyard brawler, he is scoring much more money in the sport of MMA similarly speaking, even if you are not ranked top 20, you can get by really well if you have a very good manager/promoter or a PR guy in general
