(Reuters)

The Dallas Cowboys retained their status as the world’s most valuable sports team for a sixth consecutive year, according to the list published by Forbes on Thursday that was dominated by National Football League clubs.

The NFL’s Cowboys, who unseated Spanish soccer club Real Madrid for top spot on the list in 2017, were valued at US$8 billion, a 40 per cent jump compared to last year.

According to Forbes, 30 of the NFL’s 32 teams were on the top-50 list of the most valuable teams, which it attributed to the league having the richest media deal in sports worth US$112 billion through 2032.

The NFL’s New England Patriots (US$6.4 billion) and reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams (US$6.2 billion) rounded out the top three.

Apart from the NFL, the other teams on the list that had a cutoff value of US$3.1 billion came from European soccer (eight), the National Basketball Association (seven) and Major League Baseball (five).

The New York Yankees (US$6 billion) led the way for MLB and were fourth on the list, the New York Knicks (US$5.8 billion) were the top NBA club and sixth on the list while Real Madrid (US$5.1 billion), at No. 13, were the most valuable soccer club.

The eight soccer clubs on the list came from the English Premier League (four), Spain’s La Liga (two), France’s Ligue 1 (one) and Germany’s Bundesliga (one).