New partnership has potential to be one of top sources of NIL support

On3 imageby:Eric Prisbell04/27/22

EricPrisbell

Learfield and Opendorse are joining forces in a strategic partnership that has the potential to be one of the top sources of student-athlete NIL support.

Opendorse is now Learfield’s NIL marketplace provider. That means the collegiate marketing and technology leader will promote Opendorse to local and national brand partners that support schools where Learfield holds multimedia rights. Learfield will steer those brands to the Opendorse marketplace to find, pitch and compensate athletes for NIL opportunities.

Since the NIL era began July 1, student-athletes have not had full access to the NIL opportunities that can come from the official sponsors of athletic departments. Now, that will change, Blake Lawrence, co-founder and CEO of Opendorse, told On3 on Tuesday. “With this partnership, student-athletes will have access to the billion-dollar-plus a year market that is college sports sponsorship, the majority of which is managed by the folks at Learfield,” he said. “It is a win for everybody by unlocking that segment.”

Lawrence said he believes “this partnership will bring hundreds of millions of dollars to student-athletes.”

A free, school-specific marketplace will be made available to each university, allowing its student-athletes to connect with brands through a seamless, compliant platform. Learfield schools will receive discounted pricing to Opendorse’s comprehensive NIL solutions that are focused on compliance, education and content. 

In addition, Learfield also will promote Opendorse to local and national brand partners as the preferred marketplace for Learfield Allied arrangements. The Allied program, launched late last year, facilitates the connection between brands, student-athletes and universities, enabling brands to utilize university intellectual property in student-athlete marketing campaigns and advertisements.

This partnership has been years in the making, Lawrence said, because Opendorse and Learfield, formerly Learfield IMG College, have long worked together on professional athlete endorsements. The first dollar that ever went through Opendorse was from IMG College on behalf of a local sponsor paying a recently graduated alumni to promote that local sponsor. 

Now this partnership has the potential to significantly impact the next decade for current student-athletes. Because of their long-established relationship, Opendorse and Learfield were in constant communication in the lead-up to the NIL era to try to bring structure to the market. Lawrence said it was a “mutual coming together” and a natural alliance in this space. 

Opendorse is the leading technology provider in the athlete endorsement industry. More than 75,000 athletes use Opendorse to build and monetize their NIL with support from thousands of brands, fans, sponsors, donors and partners. 

This partnership is expected to increase the quantity of opportunities for student-athletes interested in NIL deals, allowing them to apply to participate, approve terms and receive payments for campaigns created by brands within the Opendorse app. It also serves as a value add for brands that are partners of athletic departments. Now they are seamlessly connected with a wide swath of athletes as part of their athletic department sponsorship.

The businesses most likely to want to support student-athletes with NIL are those businesses that are already sponsoring college athletics, Lawrence said. And he said those businesses, when looking to add NIL to their multimedia rights sponsorship package, will think it’s natural to work with the entity they trust and partner with for years, which is Learfield.

“So there is one place for the most engaged brands in each market to go to get sponsorship rights and student-athlete activations,” Lawrence said. “Everyone hopefully can breathe a big sigh of relief because it doesn’t have to be as complicated as it has been to this point.”