June 28, 2021
Now that collegiate athletes are permitted to monetize their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL), there have been dozens and dozens of companies gearing up to help athletes secure endorsements, appearances, and other NIL-related opportunities. Some have been working with professional athletes for years while others have launched recently with collegiate athletes in mind.
While many of these companies seem similar at face value, they all have unique offerings and different visions for how to best help athletes monetize their NIL. NIL Network met with the leading digital marketplaces to understand their business model, foundations, and unique traits.
Disclaimer: Company descriptions and offerings have been provided by the founders of these businesses. Due to the novel nature of the NIL industry, it’s not yet possible to verify these services. This list is in alphabetical order, provided for informational purposes only, and NIL Network has no monetary affiliation or partnership with any of these companies.
Company: 98Strong
Website: https://www.98strong.com/
Instagram: @98strong_
Year Founded: 2021
About the Founders: Founded by Andrew Mavis and Nick Bunn, two lifelong friends, teammates and former water polo student-athletes. Mavis played at George Washington University while Bunn played at Harvard University.
Company Mission: To allow ALL student-athletes, including the 98% who won’t go pro, to monetize their NIL in the easiest way possible.
Unique Attributes: 98Strong competes for the student-athlete while they compete in their sport. Once a student-athlete signs up to join the 98Strong community, their proprietary platform immediately puts the student-athlete in a position to get sponsorship deals regardless if they have 1,000 followers or 500,000. Athletes of all levels will receive opportunities directly to their email and they can choose the deals they want to take.
Other Benefits: 98Strong will never send a student-athlete a monetization opportunity that will jeopardize their eligibility. 98Strong also forwards all email monetization alerts for student-athletes to university compliance officials so it’s easier for student-athletes and all parties can be informed of sponsorship opportunities. A more advanced version of the platform is coming soon that will include educational courses on brand building and financial literacy while also helping student-athletes connect with sponsors in even more efficient ways.
Cost to Athletes: Free
Cost to Brands: Varies on a brand’s selected marketing campaign.
“We were the 98%, now we’re fighting for them. For years there have been limited opportunities for the 98% of college student-athletes who don’t turn pro to make money off their sport. 98Strong is thrilled to bring value to ALL student-athletes and help them get the sponsorship deals they would have never seen, just by joining our community. We’re excited to bring opportunities to our members in the few states confirmed for July 1 of this year.”
Company: CleanKonnect
Website: https://cleankonnect.com/
Instagram: @cleankonnect
Year Founded: 2020
About the Founders: Zain Motani is an ardent high school basketball fan and co-host of the High School Basketball Happenings Podcast with Paul Biancardi. He has eight years of experience in digital marketing, operations, and technology at Red Ventures. Fayyaz Adatia is a huge hoops fan and is passionate about using technology to help others. He has 10 years of consulting experience and is using those skills to help athletes get paid, legally.
Company Mission: To help high school and college athletes get paid legally and efficiently so they can focus on their academics and sports.
Unique Attributes:
- CleanKonnect’s north star is making sure athletes are properly taken care of in this new NIL world.
- Through its leadership team and network, CleanKonnect has unparalleled access to many of the top high school and college basketball players who have amassed huge social media followings.
- CleanKonnect has proprietary data which provide insight into the demographics of its Athlete’s social media followers (e.g. age, average household income, hobbies, and activities, etc.) to allow for hyper-targeted brand campaigns.
Other Benefits: CleanKonnect also provides end-of-year tax guidance to all of its athletes, and non-fungible token creation for digital assets (e.g. college commitment announcements).
Cost to Athletes: Free to use, transaction fee taken on deals completed
Cost to Brands: Free
“No one fully knows exactly what the world will look like on July 1st, which is exciting and scary at the same time. With great unknown comes great opportunity. Now more than ever it’s imperative that athletes are vigilant and aware of how they can legally make money leveraging their name, image, and likeness without jeopardizing their eligibility. CleanKonnect is committed to providing this guidance and support for its athletes so they can navigate these unchartered waters while focusing on their academics and sports.”
Company: Dreamfield
Website: https://www.dreamfield.co/
Instagram: @dreamfieldco
Year Founded: 2020
About the Founders: Three Founders: Luis Pardillo, Andrew Bledsoe, and Aaron Marz. All three have previously started and exited previous businesses.
Company Mission: To be the First-to-Market leader in connecting collegiate athletes with clients for talent booking opportunities.
Unique Attributes: Primary focus on in-person appearances/ live events. The platform drives its own agreements between parties versus allowing businesses to upload their agreements.
Other Benefits: Collect and remit sales tax, integrating with compliance 3rd parties to integrate agreements to flow directly to compliance, collect payments and remit them to athletes to their mobile wallets, agreements are done in-app, provide 1099 tax documentation at EOY.
Cost to Athletes: Free
Cost to Brands: 15% transaction fee
“We see NIL as more than a college athlete’s ability to access the free market, it’s a decentralization of power from the institutions back into the hands of the athletes. We are proud to assist athletes in this new industry to transact safely and compliantly.”
Company: Gifted
Website: https://getyougifted.com/
Instagram: @thegiftedathletes
Year Founded: 2020
About the Founders:
- Alex Larson – Alex is an Arizona State University graduate who studied business law, data analytics, and entrepreneurship. In 2018, Alex spent his sophomore fall semester at Draper University, a start-up accelerator led by venture capitalist Tim Draper.
- Michael Matus – Michael is currently a student-athlete at Arizona State University. Off the field, he is pursuing a Master’s of Business Administration. Michael spends his time as a member of an athletic leadership group on campus.
- Mertay Dayanc – Mertay is currently a senior at Arizona State University studying Computer Science. In line with his studies, he is currently leading initiatives within ASU’s machine learning and data mining lab and is being mentored by a leading research professor.
Company Mission: Afford Gifted minds the tools they need to represent themselves safely and professionally.
Unique Attributes: We aren’t built for just athletes; we are built for individuals with Gifted skills and mindsets. Whether you are a fashion influencer, gamer, or tight-end, managing your NIL shouldn’t be done on dashboards or through emails/DMs.
Other Benefits: IOS Mobile app, Contract Vetting, Personal Brand portfolio building, compliance reporting, Custom Contract Drafting, tax assistance, personalized education, and much more.
Cost to Athletes: $0
Cost to Brands: $0 (For now)
“Gifted was built for the many, not the few. Gifted is a mobile application built for the growing creator economy. Whether it’s your first deal or your five-hundredth, Gifted is here to help you, be you.”
Company: Icon Source
Website: https://www.iconsource.com/
Instagram: @iconsource_
Year Founded: 2018
About the Founders: Read about them here!
Company Mission: Icon Source was built by athletes to PROTECT and bring more opportunities to athletes and their agents.
Unique Attributes: Icon Source was created years before NIL was even talked about; we came into the market to streamline the Professional sports marketing deal flow. Icon Source is the only platform with a proven marketplace, track record, and has worked with the biggest athletes and brands, For example, we just did a deal with Microsoft and David Pollock. Anyone can create a platform, but it takes years of experience to understand how deals are done in the sports marketing industry. Chase Garret led Red Bull’s athlete sports marketing program (largest sports marketing company in the world) and has closed 1000s of athlete deals. This knowledge and understanding of the complex deal process have allowed Icon Source to mimic the real-world process and why all the major sports agencies (76 agencies, WME, CAA, Wasserman, Rosenhaus, etc & 205 agents) and over 2000 professional athletes actively use the platform. We are the only platform that has ever done a deal between an athlete and a brand.
Other Benefits:
- Icon Source is ready to integrate with all the compliance platforms (when they are ready), and already agreed to be on INFLCR’s compliance exchange verified.
- Icon Source collects payment 14 days or more prior to the activation to ensure on-time payment to the athlete.
- At the end of the year, Icon Source sends a single 1099 to the athlete to alleviate any tax burdens
- Icon Source has a contract template (already approved by WME, CAA, and Wasserman) that the brands cannot modify in order to speed up the process while protecting the athlete.
- Icon Source mobile APP is 100% integrated into our web-based platform, so all messaging, contract signing, etc can all be done on your desktop or mobile app.
- If a collegiate athlete has an agent, their profile can be managed by the same agents already managing the top professional athletes simultaneously.
- Icon Source does not require athletes to sign any form of exclusivity contract to be on the platform, because that would not be beneficial to the athlete.
- The platform allows for brands and athletes to communicate seamlessly, with no middle man and no pricing out the athlete
Cost to Athletes: Transaction fees apply
Cost to Brands: Transaction fees apply
“Icon Source is excited to bring the same opportunities which currently exist for professional athletes to collegiate athletes while maintaining the highest level of protection.”
Company: Inked Sports
Website: https://www.inkedsports.co/
Instagram: @inkedsports
Year Founded: 2019
About the Founders:
- Tyler (Co-CEO) – Senior at USC studying Business Administration and Real Estate Finance. USC Football Manager since 2019. Experience at Wasserman and several early-stage startups.
- Max (Co-CEO) – Senior at USC studying Computer Science and Business Administration. Experience at Google, NASA, and several early-stage startups.
- Nico (CPO) – Product Manager at Palo Alto Networks. Experience at Samara, EY, and Northrop Grumman. Bachelors in Computer Science and Business Administration, Masters in Applied Data Science
- Devin (CTO) – Senior at USC earning a Bachelor’s and Masters in Computer Science. Experience working at Amazon and several early-stage startups.
Company Mission: To turn college athletes into icons and infuse brands into pop culture.
Unique Attributes: Putting athletes first, radical transparency, founders who closely relate to athletes
Other Benefits: Compliance Reporting, Contract Tracking + Vetting, Mobile and Web Application
Cost to Athletes: Free
Cost to Brands: 10% transaction fee
“It’s an honor to be in a position where we can finally help our athlete peers leverage their name, image, and likeness just like any other student. We at Inked Sports are eager to put athletes in the best possible position to make great things happen with them.”
Company: Jersey Sponsor
Website: https://www.jerseysponsor.com/
Instagram: @jerseysponsor
Year Founded: 2019
About the Founders: Read about them here!
Company Mission: Our mission is to empower athletes with technology that grows with their career and equips them with the power to easily understand and leverage the unique opportunities they encounter at every stage.
Unique Attributes: We’re much more than an athlete sponsorship marketplace, we’re creating revenue-generating opportunities and using tech and data to visualize the actual leverage possessed by athletes in real-time and giving them away to activate it. We’ve created a toolbox that includes social networking and fundraisers to give athletes a place to go to immediately activate so many different opportunities at a moment’s notice.
- Lineups – a feature that allows athletes to combine profiles with friends or teammates to showcase their entire social following to attract opportunities based upon their entire footprint. We’re giving athletes the ability to perform collaborative actions using their creativity and combinations of friends or interests to help gain more revenue-generating opportunities that are also more relevant, specific, and attractive to them.
- Data and matching – we’re creating opportunities within the platform using data and interests and activity. Our aim is to automate the matchmaking process to create and find those matches that would otherwise not occur.
- Social Ring and comprehensive profile – We provide the entire snapshot of the athlete comprehensively in an easy-to-use graphic that showcases immediately to a viewer the value you bring and the audience you command. Show your interests, upload a highlight video, include a link to the media you’re proud of all in one place.
- Social Networking – We’ve incorporated the social networking elements into our platform. There are many opportunities that benefit athletes that aren’t just social media sponsorships and many people who want to connect with athletes so we’re also providing the space for this.
- Our profiles are public and created to double as a sponsorship presentation that may be immediately activated. We want to provide the greatest highlight and snapshot of athletes and the most consolidated source of information that exists for them to use to their benefit. You can share your profile with 3rd parties who aren’t on the platform, we want your Jersey Sponsor page to be your greatest source of information on the internet.
Other Benefits:
- Compliance reporting: Built-in 3rd party review & internally by compliance attorney as well as automated reporting to the school compliance officer and confirmation prior to execution. This includes minors and other potential contractual obligations like exclusivity and an agent.
- Contract vetting: We’re partnered with a law firm for contract vetting and assistance for athletes to have access to immediate non-agency agreements that serve their immediate needs to navigate NIL issues, direction, and contracts.
- Tax assistance: Built-in tax estimate and withholding for athletes with financial literacy resources and guidance in planning.
- App: iOS & Android
Cost to Athletes: Free
Cost to Brands: 15% transaction fee, monthly subscription for premium features (currently early bird special of $100)
“We look forward to giving athletes the tools, resources, and transparency to activate and leverage the unique opportunities they possess and own while making sure they’re protected every step of the way. We’re an advocate and ally of their interests and hope to always maintain a company that not just talks but actually incorporates the elements and diverse interests of our global community.”
Company: Marketpryce
Website: https://www.marketpryce.com/
Instagram: @marketpryce
Year Founded: 2021
About the Founder: Jason Bergman is the Co-Founder and CEO of MarketPryce and is a veteran in the sports marketing industry, where he saw the systemic issues with how endorsement deals get done. Spending three years as the first sales hire at OpenSponsorship, Jason helped brands ranging from one-person startups to Anheuser-Busch & Vitamin Shoppe work with professional athletes for marketing campaigns. During his time at OpenSponsorship, he saw brands struggle to consistently find the right athlete to work with and obtain a return on investment from a marketing Campaign. Jason saw first hand how hard it was to close marketing deals with professional athletes, but still never experienced the problem as an athlete or agent, so he started his own sports marketing agency called Jason Max Marketing where he represented 12 professional athletes, including NBA athletes like Monte Morris and NFL athletes like Avonte Maddox. The best businesses are built from solving problems and Jason has built MarketPryce using his years of experience both as a brand consultant at OpenSponsorship as well as a sports marketing agent.
Company Mission: To democratize athlete marketing, empowering any professional or college athlete to take marketing into their own hands.
Unique Attributes: Unlike most other marketplaces, MarketPryce never takes any commission from deals closed on the platform. We are the only relationship-driven platform, where other marketplaces are very transaction-focused. We allow our users to take conversations off the platform, which is incredibly important to us because we want to encourage communication between our users instead of restricting it, to keep deals as authentic as possible. Your network is your net worth as an athlete and direct communication with brands is essential to building that.
We also empower athletes to close product-only deals, without upfront cash involved. For athletes that have less than 1,000 followers on social media, it will be hard to make life-changing money from endorsement deals, but MarketPryce makes it easy to close product-only deals to help athletes get their foot in the door with many brands. Free product deals are a great first step in allowing athletes to test out a relationship with a brand (see if they like their product, see value in a partnership) and athletes on MarketPryce have received hundreds of thousands of dollars of free product from brands already.
Since our launch in January, we’ve been adding 5-10 new companies on MarketPryce on a weekly basis, so we have new national and local brands for college athletes to connect with every day. Furthermore, we’ve facilitated over 1,000 deals between 900+ professional athletes and 200+ brands like CBS Sports, Fashion Nova, PETA & more.
Other Benefits: We help every student-athlete with 1 on 1 support for compliance reporting for any deal closed through MarketPryce and we have a built-in contract system to protect all student-athletes in both product and cash deals. MarketPryce manually approves every brand that signs up to MarketPryce, to protect all student-athletes from potential violations. Every athlete should know that their marketing partner is trustworthy and we do the vetting for them. App coming within the next 30 days.
Cost to Athletes: $15 per month
Cost to Brands: Free
“Everyone in the sports business world is definitely thrilled about NIL law changes, but it shouldn’t just be us who are celebrating. Anyone who believes in fair compensation and individual autonomy should cheer for new NIL laws. We’re so proud to be facilitating deals in this context. I was speaking with a female track & field student-athlete recently and she mentioned how “NIL is only really going to affect the Basketball & Football players”. I want to make sure that every student-athlete knows that this is NOT going to be the case. Every student-athlete, no matter your gender, sport or background, can bring immense value to brands on marketing deals, and we at MarketPryce want to empower every student-athlete in the country to capitalize on this new legislation.”
Company: Mogl
Website: https://www.mogl.online/
Instagram: @get.mogl
Year Founded: 2019
About the Founders:
- Ayden Syal (Chief Executive Officer): A lifelong sports fan and competitor, Ayden started MOGL to make a tangible impact in the lives of others through sports. Prior to starting MOGL, Ayden worked in financial services in New York at Morgan Stanley and IHS Markit, and in private equity at Lexington Partners. Ayden is originally from New Jersey where he attended Seton Hall Prep. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with degrees in Management Consulting and Sociology.
- Brandon Wimbush (Chief Athletic Officer): Brandon is a former starting quarterback at Notre Dame and the University of Central Florida. In 2017, Brandon led the Irish to a 10-3 record and also became Notre Dame’s single-season rushing TDs leader among Quarterbacks. He has worked at KPMG and Accel Partners prior to co-founding MOGL. Brandon is originally from New Jersey where he attended Saint Peter’s Prep and was New Jersey’s Gatorade Player of the Year. Brandon graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Accountancy.
Company Mission: MOGL is on a mission to empower athletes and businesses in the NIL era to build their brands while making a difference. The company is committed to providing opportunities for all college athletes regardless of sport, notoriety, or school. Get Paid. Build Your Brand. Make a Difference.
Unique Attributes: MOGL is different from any other marketplace in the NIL era because of its commitment to the athlete and the local business community. The company is minority-founded and impact-focused. MOGL was founded for athletes by athletes and is designed solely for the benefit of athletes. The company is not in contract with universities thus it can legally offer a marketplace for athletes. Through MOGL, athletes can easily create their profiles, apply to opportunities to get paid, disclose their activities directly to compliance, and get paid all in one location.
In addition, with MOGL, athletes will directly be helping the next generation of athletes. The company has partnered with Every Kid Sports to continue to promote the accessibility of youth athletic programs for all children regardless of income. Furthermore, MOGL offers financial literacy resources specifically designed for athletes and their families as they navigate the NIL landscape through a partnership with former NFL veteran Jedidiah Collins and Money Vehicle.
Other benefits: MOGL also offers the ability for athletes to create and sell their own merchandise and host their own training camps. Social media reporting and analytics are also available for businesses leveraging the platform.
Cost to athletes to use: Free
Cost to brands to use: Free access with a transaction fee
“MOGL is extremely excited to be able to change the lives of athletes and businesses. This company was founded on the premise of empowerment and making a difference. Over the past two years, we have worked with well-known former collegiate athletes on a variety of exciting engagements and are so excited to finally be able to offer this to the current college athlete. With MOGL, you are joining a service that has the athletes’ best interest at heart and are working with founders who have been in their shoes.”
Company: NOCAP Sports
Website: https://nocapsports.io/
Instagram: @nocapsports
Year Founded: 2020
About the Founders: NOCAP was founded by Nicholas Lord, a former Division III student-athlete, Stan Golubtsov, a fortune 500 CTO, and Casey Floyd, the former Director of Compliance at the University of Michigan.
Company Mission: To give every athlete, regardless of school, sport, level, or background, equal access to the best technology and resources to maximize their name, image, and likeness (NIL)
Unique Attributes:
- Proactive compliance automation as opposed to just form collector or contract template
- Ability to monetize multiple revenue streams other than social media
- Custom SEO athlete features to increase deal flow
- Servicing brands of all sizes through key partnerships and three different brand options: Self-Service, Co-Managed, and Full Service
- Access to over 2,000 of the nation’s biggest brands through key partnerships
- Allowing agents to manage and secure more deals for their athletes
- Bringing brands, fans, agents, and athletes into one ecosystem
- Provides benefits to institutions without contractual relationships
Other Benefits: Extensive compliance reporting and automation, end of year tax form generation, free education portal, advanced social analytics through social media partnerships. Our IOS/Android apps are in development.
Cost to Athletes: Free
Cost to Brands: Not charged until the deal is initiated. Once a deal is initiated, the brand is charged a transaction fee that is dependent on which tier of service the brand used and what add ons they chose.
“I think there will be a lot of trial and error beginning July 1 and that’s why our focus is on longevity as opposed to one big splash on day 1. We are amped to be at the forefront of this exciting new industry building a platform for athletes to compliantly make the money they deserve for years to come. There is no cap on the potential for these athletes regardless of what sport they play or where they go to school.”
NIL Network Note: Playbooked did not return the request for this information so it has been pulled from the website as much as possible. Updates will be made if/when more information is provided.
Company: Playbooked
Website: https://playbooked.com/
Instagram: @playbookedapp
Year Founded: 2020
About the Founders: Read about them here!
Company Mission: PlayBooked is a platform for a fast-growing group of collegiate athletes who are taking back what is already theirs by birthright – their own names and use of it.
Unique Attributes: Unknown
Other Benefits: Unknown
Cost to Athletes: Unknown
Cost to Brands: Unknown
Company: Postgame
Website: https://pstgm.com/
Instagram: @postgame.official
Year Founded: 2020
About the Founders: Successful Tech Entrepreneurs, ex-D1 athletes, D1 administrator, MLB Sales & Marketing, NBA G-League Exec., Coaching,
Company Mission: to give every college athlete, regardless of their stature, an opportunity to benefit from their NIL on their own terms – independent of outside influence.
Unique Attributes: For the Brands – A group influencer buying experience that helps them achieve more exposure at scale – which creates more opportunities for more college athletes. Our independence – no formal association with any school, conference, etc… allows us the flexibility to work directly with athletes at scale on our terms and provide many different types of opportunities.
Other Benefits: Our API will allow colleges and compliance software companies a seamless flow of deal information. We will soon be offering additional ‘white glove’ services for the higher-profile athletes which will include added contract vetting and more traditional agency services, etc… We have an app for both iOS and Android that has been live since December 2020.
Cost to Athletes: Free
Cost to Brands: Generally, brands pay a service fee to Postgame to run a campaign to our athletes – terms are negotiated prior to an opportunity being presented to the athlete(s).
“The train has left the station. Let the games begin! No pun intended.”
Company: Vantage Sports
Website: https://www.vantagesports.com/
Instagram: @vantagesports_nil
Year Founded: 2021
About the Founder: Patrick Johnson – Passionate about helping college athletes earn under NIL without the need for a social media presence and by paying it forward to aspiring college athletes.
Company Mission: Help out young athletes who aspire to play at the next level, reinforce the fundamentals of your game through coaching, no need for a 5 figure Instagram following
Unique Attributes: Private Coaching, film review (and virtual coaching), general advice from
college athletes to aspiring college athletes (navigating the recruiting process, etc.)
Other benefits: Compliance reporting, tax assistance through our individualized player earnings log, general liability protection for any injuries that may arise while coaching, top-notch customer service
Cost to Athletes: Free
Cost to Clients: 10% service charge to clients plus 1% is donated to the Doug Flutie Foundation for Autism.
“We’re excited to connect college athletes to their fans like never before.”
Company: Workhorse
Website: https://www.workhorse.ooo/
Instagram: @workhorse_app
Year Founded: 2020
About the Founders:
- Jake Klores (Co-founder and CEO): Jake Klores graduated from Columbia University in 2021, where he played basketball. As a Division 1 college athlete himself, Klores understands firsthand the sacrifice and dedication required to excel in all facets of being a student-athlete, and is excited to offer all athletes a tool that will allow them to take further advantage of their hard work and finally profit from their NIL.
- Matt O’Connor (Co-founder and CTO): A former senior software engineer at TapCommerce (acquired by Twitter) and Swipe Labs (acquired by Uber), O’Connor has extensive experience building and scaling technology from the ground up. A lifelong college sports fan, O’Connor was most recently a lead software engineer at Twitter, Uber, and a senior software engineer at Joby Aviation.
Company Mission: By connecting student-athletes with local businesses in their college towns for promotional opportunities, Workhorse seeks to democratize the opportunities that will exist in the NIL space, giving a wide variety of athletes seamless access to relevant and compliant monetization opportunities.
Unique Attributes:
- Hyper-local focus
- Gamification features in the Workhorse app create a fun and engaging experience for student-athletes
- Social features, allowing in-app engagement with businesses and fans
Other benefits: Mobile app, compliance, and deal disclosure functionalities, social media analytics
Cost to Athletes: Free
Cost to Brands: Free to use, transaction fee taken on deals completed
“We can’t wait to help all student-athletes and local businesses take complete advantage of all the incredible opportunities that the new NIL era will offer. In just a few clicks, Workhorse will provide student-athletes access to much-deserved monetization opportunities, and local businesses a tool that will change the way they market and engage with their community forever.”