Walmart tycoon Rob Walton is poised to make a bid for the Denver Broncos — and is now the favorite to buy the team despite the NFL’s efforts to court Robert F. Smith, the nation’s richest African-American, The Post has learned.

Walton — worth more than $70 billion, according to Forbes — is expected to submit a Broncos bid on Friday worth more than $4 billion — the highest price ever paid for a professional sports team, according to sources close to the situation.

By comparison, hedge-fund billionaire David Tepper paid a record NFL price in 2018 of $2.2 billion for the Carolina Panthers. Chinese e-commerce mogul Joe Tsai topped that, paying $2.3 billion for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets in 2019.

The Post last month broke the news that 77-year-old Walton was in the running, which since has been confirmed with several more direct sources.

The Broncos have set Friday as the deadline for opening bids and are only accepting offers that are for more than $4 billion, a source closely following the situation said.

“A bid needs to have a four in front of it,” according to a source close to the process — and insiders project that the final sale price will land somewhere between $4.5 billion and $5 billion.

As reported by The Post, NFL bigwigs including Commissioner Roger Goodell and Patriots owner Robert Kraft have privately been urging Smith — a private-equity tycoon who famously spent $34 million in 2019 to pay off the student loans of the entire graduating class of Morehouse College — to become the NFL’s first black team owner.

Goodell has been courting Smith as the league frantically looks to repair its banged-up image when it comes to race relations. In February, ex-Miami Dolphins Coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit against the NFL that compared the league to a “plantation,” where 70 percent of the players, but none of the owners, are black.

Now, however, sources said opinions are mixed on whether 59-year-old Smith — who is also the chairman of Carnegie Hall — will even submit an offer.

While Smith was interested in buying the Broncos a month ago, insiders said he also has been grappling with raising a new, $20 billion-plus buyout fund and is facing pressure from investors to stay focused on his firm, Vista Equity Partners.

Meanwhile, insiders said the perception is that Walton, whose cousin Ann is married to Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams Owner Stan Kroenke, will simply outbid any rivals when the Broncos auction gets to the final round in roughly six weeks, a source close to the situation said.

Indeed, despite Smith’s massive fortune — which Forbes estimates at $6.7 billion — the Broncos would make for a big bite. League rules require that an owner put no more than $1 billion in debt on a team and put down at least 33 percent of the equity.

That means that even if Smith brought in partners to buy the rest of the team, which insiders expect he would, Smith himself would have to write a check of at least $1 billion.

Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris, whose net worth Forbes pegs at $5.6 billion and who also owns the Philadelphia 76ers, is meanwhile expected to make an offer for the Broncos.

While Jeff Bezos had been rumored to be kicking the tires, it’s not clear whether he is still interested, sources said.

Walton, the eldest son of the late retail legend Sam Walton, served as Walmart chairman from 1992 to 2015. His father Sam’s brother, Budd, is Ann Kroenke’s father.  

Reps for Walton, Smith, the NFL and the Broncos didn’t immediately return requests for comment.