Simon Lizotte makes US$1 million a year throwing what most people call Frisbees.

The son of a Canadian — he still has ties to the country and was in

Nova Scotia

helping a friend design a disc golf course at a ski hill in the fall — he now lives in New England and his expertise in course design in a growing sport allows him to make tens of thousands of dollars on top of his professional disc golf winnings.

But life wasn’t always this way.

For the first four years of his career, Lizotte lived in a late-1990s RV wrapped in a vinyl advertisement for Discmania, the Finnish manufacturer that sponsored him. The arrangement was not lucrative: no money, just free discs “and a shirt and a hat basically,” he said with a laugh.

He’d fly into the United States from Germany, drive to tournaments, represent the brand and entertain fans. The prize money was modest, a few hundred dollars here, a thousand dollars there, but expenses were low. By the end of a season, he might earn between $5,000 and $10,000, nearly all of it gone before the cycle began again.

“I remember having 1,000 euros in my bank account back then,” he said. “For me, four digits felt like success.”

Early on, Lizotte recognized a hard truth: unless he became one of the world’s very best players, he wouldn’t be able to make much of a living on tournament winnings. He’d have to build a personal brand at the same time, so he began treating tournaments as a marketing platform. He leaned into crowd-pleasing high-risk shots and trick throws, plays that stood out even when they didn’t lead to victories.

“Even in tournaments, I would throw risk-reward shots not necessarily to win, but to entertain,” he said.

Lizotte’s been known to try shots with his eyes closed and send a disc full circle around a tree before it lands on what in golf would be called the green.

“That was a great way for me to build a big following on tour and I didn’t have to be the player who constantly wins every tournament,” he said.

The approach paid off. In 2023, following a breakout competitive season that included four Disc Golf Pro Tour wins, Lizotte signed a 10-year contract with MVP Disc Sports LLC worth US$1 million.

The company a

nnounced the signing on its website

, calling him “the leading man in disc golf — charisma, charm and one heck of an arm.” The partnership, it said, “is a perfect match of technical and manufacturing skill and the most naturally talented disc golfer on the planet.”

Disc golf is growing worldwide, with 16,000-plus courses in more than 90 countries and millions of players logging rounds each year, according to research firm Business Research Insights. The equipment market alone is worth hundreds of millions and could reach US$1 billion by the early 2030s.

Disc golf participation and industry growth are fastest in North America and Europe, making it one of the fastest-growing outdoor sports globally.

It’s gaining serious traction in Canada, too. There are more than 90 courses in Ontario, nearly 47,000 players booked rounds in British Columbia in 2024 and player counts at top courses across the country and infrastructure are growing.

Born in Germany to a Canadian father and German mother, Lizotte was raised in Germany after his family returned from Canada. He’s still a Canadian citizen, but now lives in Grafton, Mass. Today, he attributes three out of every four dollars he makes to his media presence and product sales rather than tournament results.

“You need a big brand and you need to sell discs,” he said. “That was the path to making this a career.”

Early on, he leaned heavily into Instagram, posting disc golf trick shots inspired in part by creators such as Brodie Smith, who built a massive following through

trick-shot videos on YouTube.

Lizotte launched his YouTube channel in 2018. Since then, he has posted more than 400 videos and grown his audience to over 215,000 subscribers.

“That took off shockingly fast,” he said. “Especially when COVID started and lockdowns began. I saw it as an opportunity to go all in on YouTube, posting literally every other day.”

For roughly six months, Lizotte maintained that pace and his channel became a central engine of his brand. One month, he made almost US$25,000 in ad revenue.

By the mid-2010s, disc manufacturers began monetizing player popularity more directly through “signature discs” — standard moulds stamped with a player’s name or logo. Players typically earned between US$2 and US$4 per disc sold. For athletes with large followings, those margins quickly outpaced their prize money.

But there’s more prize money now, and annual winnings can hit six figures.

The game’s turning point was the pandemic. Participation surged because anyone can play it and it is relatively cheap. Manufacturers expanded production, and media exposure — particularly through YouTube — accelerated growth.

Now 33, Lizotte is under contract with MVP Discs for six more years. He continues to compete at a high level, but he’s increasingly focused on longevity, both financially and physically as years of throwing have taken a toll on his elbow.

That’s why considering new side gigs such as designing courses is important.

  • John Risley’s $75-billion bet on Atlantic Canada’s energy future
  • ‘Wild West out there’: Cargo theft reports soar in Canada, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg

“If you design three or four courses a year, that’s very good,” he said. “The business side of it is fascinating.”

Lizotte was in Nova Scotia for that reason in November, visiting a property with his friend, Ben Smith, a well-known course designer in Eastern Canada who is working on a course at Ski Wentworth, about an hour-and-a-half drive from Halifax. Smith invited Lizotte to offer a professional player’s perspective.

“He wanted feedback on the land and the vision,” he said. “I was happy to be there; it was a lot of fun.”

Sometimes a player can even make money on the way out.

Case in point: Lizotte in late 2022 announced his departure from Discmania. To mark the occasion, the company released 20,000 farewell signature discs, which sold out in 25 minutes, making him $80,000 richer.

“That was crazy,” he said.

The moment underscored a broader shift in professional disc golf economics. Years of audience-building allowed Lizotte to make a lot of money independent of tournament results, traditional advertising or broadcast exposure. The value lay in direct fan relationships and that’s how you make millions throwing a Frisbee.

“It’s crazy, right?” he said. “But I always knew I was working towards something good. I just kept working toward it.”

• Email: arankin@postmedia.com