Name, image, likeness, and a whole lotta cash

Nil might mean nothing to you, but in the world of college sports, it means quite a bit. 

College athletes weren’t always allowed to profit off of their name, image, and likeness (NIL), and they often forfeited their rights to do so when signing on with a university’s team. 

That’s since changed, thanks to a series of — ongoing — legal proceedings:

• In 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that refusing to let college athletes earn NIL income violated antitrust laws. 
• Today, the House v. NCAA case is underway in California, where a judge is still deliberating on three antitrust cases that, if approved, would pay $2.8B in damages to current and former athletes and allow colleges to pay players directly for NIL use.

Notice that capital B — we’re talking about billions of dollars here. The NIL industry is estimated to be worth $1.67B. 

Of course…

… that means there are startups sniffing around the cash pile. One in particular, Opendorse, has raised $40m in funding to pair athletes with brand deals and is a major player in the NIL space, per Inc. 

• Most college athletes don’t have agents to help them vet offers from brands or handle contracts. 
• Athletes can make profiles, apply directly to brand deals, and get paid all within the company’s app.
• On the other side, brands can search for student athletes by sport or university. The company charges brands ~10% of the deal for using the platform. 

It seems to be working: The company says it now has 150k athletes using its platform, 115k of whom are in college, and the dollar value of deals booked through Opendorse increased 50x between 2020 and 2024 to $100m+. 

A shrinking league

While hundreds of startups flocked to the NIL space following the 2021 ruling, few are left standing.

Opendorse estimates that the number of NIL-related companies has fallen from ~250 in 2022 to 40 today.

Still worth a shot catching a big fish, though: Livvy Dunne, an LSU gymnast, made $9.5m in NIL deals over her college career. We’d take 10% of that any day.