Some good examples of professional spots in ancient civilizations are those practiced by Native Americans. Many of these were well documented due to European exploration and provide an insight to the cultural for competitive sports is considered to have been wide-spread throughout the pre-colonial Americas. Lacrosse is probably the most famous of such sports. J.G. Kohl claimed (in 1860) that often villages or tribes played against eachother, "Hundreds of players assemble, and the wares and goods offered as prizes often reach a value of a thousand dollars and more.” In this way one could assume that athletes were revered similarly to their counterparts today (taking into consideration the affect of modern media on athlete popularity). Hope you have a great day,