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 thoroughly verify these services. Furthermore, no questions were mandatory; allowing contributors to answer whichever they wanted to. This article is provided for informational purposes only, and NIL Network has no monetary affiliation or partnership with any of these companies.
By Helen He, NIL Network Research Analyst
Now that collegiate athletes are permitted to monetize their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL), there are hundreds of NIL businesses helping 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. With that in mind and in line with the NIL Network goal of establishing a more transparent NIL industry, we met with seven companies that connect student-athletes with their fans and supporters to better understand their business model, foundations, and unique traits.
A Brief Synopsis of the Contributing Businesses:
Athletes.tv is a free, ad-supported video platform for athletes and sports video content. They are also launching AthletesNFT.com and AthletesMerch.com to complement our video platform and help athletes monetize their Name, Image, and Likeness.
SheMate virtually connects women in college athletics with young people looking up to them. With SheMate, female college athletes meaningfully monetize their skills and experience while young people obtain customized, empowering content, and their parents and coaches receive strategies for better athletic development from the women who know the space best.
VIDSIG is a platform that connects influencers with fans for “One-to-One Life-Changing Conversations”.
Vantage Sports’ mission is to create income-earning opportunities for NCAA student-athletes while simultaneously giving youth and high school athletes access to instruction and mentorship by college athletes.
OCP Sports was created to help diversify Overly Competitive Productions, LLC by expanding our services from content creation to marketing management for athletes. By using our knowledge and expertise in content creation and brand development, our mission is to provide the proper services needed to help aid athletes in building a community and social media presence.
Replay’s tech + marketplace is leveraged by pro and college athletes to expand their reach while getting paid to give video feedback on sports clips sent to them by rising athletes.
Infinite Reality (iR) is the gateway to the Metaverse and creator economy where creators and consumers engage live with digital content through interactive first-person social experiences. Infinite Reality’s mission is to support the creators, artists, innovators, and companies who will help build the Metaverse with the tools they need to do so and empower anyone with a phone or computer to create their own unique piece of the Metaverse.
Jump to a Question
What are three things you believe every athlete should think about before executing on a NIL deal?
Athletes.tv LLC
- What is the fine print on this deal?
- Does this deal limit me on other or future opportunities?
- How much time will this take for the benefit I am receiving?
Overly Competitive Productions LLC
- How does this deal benefit me and my family?
- Does the deal make sense with who I am?
- Will it represent me in a positive manner?
Vantage Sports
- What is their brand?
- Who am I working with?
- Is this worth my time?
Infinite Reality
- Fit and time commitment.
- Long-term viability.
- Company’s marketing commitment.
SheMate
- If and how the deal will benefit you when you graduate from college.
- If you would feel proud to talk about the deal with friends, family, professors, and future employers.
- If there are other options that are better fitting for your personal and professional goals.
VIDSIG
- Does it align with their personal goals and brand?
- Can they be themselves authentically?
- Will it help them make a positive impact?
What are some ways that you think student-athletes can leverage their NIL, especially ones that compete in non-revenue generating sports, or athletes in smaller colleges or college towns?
Athletes.tv LLC
Video. Over 80% of the internet is focused on video. We’ve created Athletes. tv as a platform to allow all athletes in all sports to monetize their video content.
Overly Competitive Productions LLC
Community. Many athletes are “superstars” within their communities and that’s their leverage. They need to understand who their audience is and use that knowledge to pitch to brands how they can help market the company.
Infinite Reality
Search out companies that can leverage the athletes’ ties to a specific community and how that can advance both the athlete and the company.
SheMate
Tapping into the ecosystem of your sport. For example, golf does not rank in the top NIL deals. However, if you are a collegiate golfer, you can connect with the ecosystem of people interested in learning from you, such as rural and hometown golf courses, high school athletes, and college business students as they transition into corporate work.
VIDSIG
Always use their platform for positive impact, regardless of sport or popularity.
REPLAY
The expertise that student-athletes develop over many years of training is highly sought after. Private coaching empowers student-athletes to unlock trapped value by monetizing that expertise. Replay enables student-athletes to tap into this value online any time, from anywhere.
There is a misconceptions that athletes need a huge following on social media to monetize their NIL. Can you provide an example of an athlete who has successfully monetized their NIL without a big following on social media?
Athletes.tv LLC
We’ve seen high school athletes with just a few hundred followers on social media get millions of views on a video that has gone viral. On our platform, having millions of views would translate to tens of thousands of dollars. Anyone can have a video go viral, regardless of how many followers they have on social media.
SheMate
SheMate athletes monetize NIL by sharing their stories, recommendations, and encouragement with the youth sports industry. At SheMate, we believe what athletes have to say is more important than the social following.
Vantage Sports
Yes! 100% could not agree more on this. We had two players at the University of Florida make $3,800 and they had a combined 4K followers on IG.
What is the number one thing that you would suggest athletes do research on before they accept any NIL deals?
Athletes.tv LLC
Read the terms of the contract. Make sure to have their parents or someone they trust to also read the terms of the contract.
Vantage Sports
What are the brand’s mission statement and values?
Overly Competitive Productions LLC
Read the company history. What are they about and what do they stand for?
Infinite Reality
They need to know themselves and what they want before discussing opportunities and how these would fit into their personal branding.
VIDSIG
The reputation of the company they’re considering. Once aligned with them, you are assumed to believe in them and their products as well as their mission.
What are the top three opportunities you provide for the athletes using your platform?
Athletes.tv LLC
- We provide athletes the opportunity to monetize their video content.
- We own and are launching AthletesMerch.com to help athletes sell their own custom merch through our merch provider.
- We’re launching AthletesNFT.com to help athletes turn their videos and other digital art into NFTs.
- The athlete’s merch and NFTs can all be marketed on their Athletes.tv channels, and across all platforms.
Vantage Sports
- Giving back to the community.
- Learn how to coach.
- Consistent and steady income.
Overly Competitive Productions LLC
- Brand Development.
- Social Media Content.
- Knowledge in Business.
Infinite Reality
- Expansion of brand.
- Monetization of connections.
- Monetization of content.
VIDSIG
- We allow athletes to build their brand via live video interactions on our app. Athletes use it to connect to fans, give individual video lessons, or as a pre-recorded shout-out.
REPLAY
- We are a marketplace to send sports clips to elite private coaches for personalized video feedback.
- We provide our partners with proprietary video analysis software to review requests that come in through their Replay marketplace profiles (up to 4 submitted clips) so they can record 5-10 minute Replay Video responses.
- We’ve partnered with 90+ world-class private coaches including pro & college athletes.
SheMate
- Positive brand image and resume building.
- Meaningful work: increasing female representation on screens and supporting young athletes
- Range of time commitments aligned with athlete goals and availability.
What are the top three core values or pillars of your company?
Athletes.tv LLC
- We are here to help athletes build their brand and following.
- We are here to help athletes build their monetization.
- We are here to help fans feel more connected to the athletes and teams they love.
Vantage Sports
- Transparency.
- Community.
- Have Fun!
Overly Competitive Productions LLC
- Community.
- Passion.
- Brand Development.
Infinite Reality
- We pay everyone at a rate of 50% of the ad revenue generated by the content you share with your followers on the Display app. (You post, people view the post, get paid). FB will make $100B and share no revenue with us.
- In comparison – a viral post of 1M views on YouTube would earn you $1000-$2000 (after you meet the base requirements to earn). On Display, that number would be 10 to 20xs higher (with no earning criteria).
- Invite your friends, family and followers to Display and earn 10% of their revenue (out of the Display side).
- Confirmed charitable organizations receive 100% of all supported content advertising(instead of 50/50).
- We have transparency of analytics. We give you all the information about the posts that we know about the people consuming the content, including age, sex, and geographic demographics.
- E-commerce – everyone has an E-commerce store with their acct and can share products (from Amazon, Walmart, Fanatics, and the NFL store) with their followers and make 50% of the affiliate fee associated with the product and/or sell their own products.
VIDSIG
- Our motto is “VIDSIG provides access to life-changing conversations.”
SheMate
- Women should be paid for their work.
- There is power in community.
- Elevating women in sports today paves the way for a more equitable future.
What is your company’s competitive advantage that makes your service unique to athletes?
Athletes.tv LLC
Our platform is built for athletes and sports content. We are live today, and here to help athletes increase their monetization across multiple verticals.
Vantage Sports
We are a highly customized platform where athletes can offer coaching from 1 on 1 lessons to major camps.
Overly Competitive Productions LLC
Youth. Our company consists of a handful of individuals who are old enough to earn the respect of young athletes but also young enough to understand and connect with athletes on a more personal level.
Infinite Reality
We are a 50/50 partner with an athlete from the start. No other company does that.
VIDSIG
- We vet anyone who wants to join our site for integrity. We understand that your name is your brand and we want to surround you with others of integrity too.
- We also allow the athlete to set their own pricing structure, frequency, and duration of their interactions.
SheMate
Meaningful monetization opportunities embedded in community and female empowerment.
REPLAY
- Our partners receive exclusive access to leverage our online private coaching marketplace and proprietary video analysis software. Student-athletes use Replay to expand their reach and monetize their existing followings by receiving requests for personalized video feedback.
- Replay provides everything that student-athletes need to easily monetize the value of their expertise, including tech, payments, marketing, insurance, etc. There are no commitments / no subscriptions and our partners control their own marketplace pricing/availability.
Helen He - SDSU Sports MBA Candidate '22
Helen He is from San Leandro, CA and graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a BA in Sociology and a certificate in Exercise & Sports Studies in 2018. After graduation, she worked as a Brand Supervisor at Converse and helped the stores boost their KPIs through customer loyalty-building and sales skills. Helen is currently a Sports MBA student at San Diego State University. She is also a bikini bodybuilding athlete and has placed first in every competition so far. She wants to use her knowledge to give athletes the support they need to help monetize their NIL.