NIL Deal Flow

Athletes are Actors

Photo by Mike Quain

Hollywood is getting a lot more company

Overtime sports launched an athlete creator studio for college athletes this week. The startup is making a big statement by signing it with USC football star Ceyair Wright by releasing a show based on his experience filming the new Space

Why it matters: Athletes are entertainers. We love seeing videos of Mic'd up and the HBO series Hard Knocks had 705,000 views in 2019. Letting athletes be their true selves is a voyeurism experience that many sports fans want to see. It humanizes the athlete and connects them with their audience.

The first of many

We're going to see many more content studios for athletes. Barstool Sports already has the engine built for any athlete to have their own podcast and merch, and the target audience to make them loads of money in the process.

As an athlete these studios provide:

• An audience ready to monetize
• tools to create content at will

What’s the point of all this? For athletes, making your first deal should come with discussions about the tools available to you to create content. Studios sole focus is to help athletes create content. If the deal doesn't have such tools, a team of editors and creators will help immensely in not only creating content but enabling future deals.

To start, working with Canva templates and small video editors on Fiverr will help create the base of your content marketing for a brand.

Or you can hire one of many services that can automate this process like Opendorse.

Whatever you decide, build and create in public!

We don't know either, but D'Eriq does

Local teams invest early.

At least that's what NHL's Florida Panthers are doing with Hurricanes QB D'Eriq King.

Last week, they signed the Canes QB with intent to develop a merchandise collection, unique art, in addition to branded content

Why it matters: Professional teams are looking locally for athlete influencers, as the fanbase can be caught earlier and ticket/merchandise sales are captured. The Miami Hurricanes are a big enough name that when you see someone like King at a NHL game, you recognize him.

Take advantage of being a first mover

Case in point: Using a FOOTBALL star to help bring hockey spectators

It's an odd move for sure, but Miami doesn't exactly have a great hockey team that can bring outside fans to the stadium.

The move by the Panthers is a great acquisition of attention of fans that otherwise wouldn't know about the NHL team.

What’s the point of all this? Athletes can leverage the resources larger teams might have (concessions, merchandise, etc) to market their own custom products. Testing out new products like a burger recipe or shoe design can help with later deals both during and after college is over.

Pay attention to smaller deals that offer co-branding opportunities. You can leverage their resources to be creative, experiment, and validate your own products without spending your own money.

Also - reach out to professional teams outside your sport. The main draw of you a face for the brand is to bring a new audience to them. Be like King and work locally to bring more sales, as well as more deal flow, to your area.

And that's it ! Reply to this post with your favorite takeaway or another deal you want broken down next week!