Opendorse shares recommendations for athletes seeking NIL opportunities

With the one-year anniversary of the new era of college sports nearly here, plenty of lessons have been learned on navigating name, image and likeness. Opendorse has released a list of conversation starters on Twitter for athletes to start talking with their favorite local business about NIL opportunities.

NIL now allows student-athletes a workaround to receive financial compensation for their accomplishments on the field.

In under 12 months, Quinn Ewers enrolled at Ohio State a year early. In exchange, he landed a deal with GT Sports Marketing worth $1.4 million because the state of Texas did not allow high school players to earn NIL compensation.

And LSU gymnast Oliva Dunne, who has over five million social media followers, inked a mid six-figure deal with activewear brand Vuori.

States have also completely revamped their NIL legislation. Recently, Tennessee took center stage in the nationwide discussion about NIL. Mississippi tweaked its NIL law, and an amended NIL bill recently passed in Illinois. The South Carolina state Senate passed its 2022-2023 budget. Inside the budget, it includes a section that takes its NIL law off the books for the fiscal year.

Here are a list of recommendations from Opendorse:

Tips from Opendorse

+ Find contact information

Sending emails or reaching out over social media over direct message shows the effort athletes are making. But don’t hesitate to go the extra mile. Go to the local business in person or find the phone number and make a call. Be ready to make a pitch on the spot.

+ Players should provide details about why they have specific interest in the business

If an athlete is taking the time to spend time with a local business, make it worthwhile for them. Be ready to share a few reasons about what makes the business special. On top of that, athletes need to be ready to sell themselves as an active member in the college community.

+ Share reasons why an NIL partnership would be beneficial for the business

If the partnership is going to be a win-win for for both the athlete or business, it is important to make clear why it will be beneficial for the business. This could include a personal story on why the business matters to the athlete or how it aligns with both parties’ goals and values.

+ Provide examples of previous deals completed along with results

With the ever-changing world of NIL, business want hard evidence an athlete will execute on the deal agreed upon. The best way to show this is by providing results of a previous NIL. This could mean specifically sharing the analytics the player generated on social media for a company.

+ Always be respectful

Whenever operating with a business, keep in mind now may not be a great timeline for them to strike up an NIL deal. Don’t let the relationship end, though. This means keeping up communication and continuing to show why the athlete is a strong fit.

How athletes can capitalize on NIL potential

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college-level athletes. 

The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.

An athletes social media presence, athletic performance and existing NIL deals are all accounted for when factoring into the On3 NIL Valuation algorithm.