Opendorse, the tech company that connects brands with athletes, will launch two new products in late '20 focused on the developing name, image and likeness marketplace in college athletics. With the NCAA preparing to vote on NIL rights in January, Opendorse today said that it is forming Opendorse Deals and Opendorse Monitor to better organize its offerings for the college space, while also enhancing oversight and security in a new marketplace of 460,000 college athletes who are expected to have NIL rights next year. Opendorse Deals will essentially create a digital marketplace that provides brands and athletes the ability to find one another and then negotiate each step of an endorsement deal, whether it is an appearance for a fee or a branded social media post on an athlete's account. Opendorse touts Monitor as a tool for college compliance departments to stay on top of NIL activity at their school, making sure endorsement deals are with credible parties and helping the athletes stay within whatever guidelines the NCAA ultimately sets. “The athlete market must be tech-driven, not just for the pros, but soon for student athletes,” Opendorse CEO Blake Lawrence said.
COMPANY'S MISSION CHANGING: The implementation of NIL rights in college will represent a “fundamental shift in the athlete endorsement marketplace,” Lawrence said, citing the tremendous number of college athletes who will almost overnight flood the athlete endorsement space. “We’re evolving our endorsement management platform to accommodate for the increase in volume and the new regulatory changes.” Lawrence was one of two former Nebraska football players who founded Opendorse in '12 and since then it has provided an endorsement platform for 25,000 pro athletes. The company has deals with most pro leagues and player unions as well. In the college space, Opendorse is best known for working with schools, coaches and athletes to help them build their brands and social followings. Using photos and graphics, Opendorse delivers attention-grabbing social posts that the athlete can easily approve and publish. They are readymade platforms for brands hoping to reach a specific audience.
REIMAMGINING THE GAME: With new NIL rules on the horizon in '21, Opendorse decided to reimagine how it takes its products to market. The company already had most of these capabilities, but the creation of two dedicated, specific lines, Deals and Monitor, is intended to give them more clarity. Lawrence: “This is a process of putting names on two solutions that we’ve been providing to the professional market.” He added it is “important that both tools, Deals and Monitor, are integrated,” especially in college, where each transaction will have to be disclosed by the athlete and catalogued by the school. Those steps are critical, because the information on each deal must be submitted to the NCAA's third-party administrator for recordkeeping at the national office.
