Is There Any Professional Sports In Equestria?

[kewlman2006 12]

So, I just wanted to know if there was any real professional sports in Equestria, not including the Equestria Games. There isn't really anything besides Buckball, but that was never really called a "professional sport", since all it was called was a "Apple Family Tradition". Plus, there is proof that Football is a professional sport, since in the non-canon comics, at least one, there was Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell, and Scootaloo playing Football when Discord tried to help them find their cutie marks, and in "Fall Weather Friends", there was a kicking (or punting) contest between Applejack and Rainbow Dash. So now, I'll just add a poll so I know what you guys think! 

[Jeric 46,834]

Buck Ball and Horse Hocky might have pro teams

[SharpWit 2,472]

Hoofball and everything competed in during the Equestrian Games.

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

Buckball is definitely a sport in Equestria that has professional teams and I suppose you could count the different teams that took part in the Equestria Games. Other than that, I'm not really sure how many exist unless we also include the other kingdoms.

[DonMaguz 1,023]

That's a tough question, but I'm inclined to say no.

Almost all athletic competitions in equestria have been performed by ponies making a living from other activities.

Rodeo competitions have prizes, but only for the blue ribbon winners and we really don't know how often the competition takes place. It would be a really hard time for any pony pursuing a living on rodeo prizes alone.

Wonderbolts have flying race competitions as a show, they probably sell tickets and gain some money out of it, but their main activity seems to be formation and precision flying in squads, they definitely don't spend all their time and training in racing alone.

Hoof-ball is where I have my doubts. First of all, we have only seen it being played by amateur players, even at the clash between Ponyville and Appaloosa teams. But... there was that time when Spike was going to spend the weekend talking with Big-Mac about Hoof-ball stats and ¿cards?, I don't remember too well about the cards but at least the stats I'm sure of. Now, keeping the stats of a sport suggests a tournament of some kind, but that's everything we know about it, whether such probable tournament is professional or amateur is completely unknown.

The Equestria Games had many sports, but again we see regular ponies representing their towns, if Fluttershy can compete in those... I doubt there's sports professionalism involved in them.

Edited October 7, 2018 by DonMaguz