Learfield, Opendorse Partner for Student-Athlete Effort

LEARFIELD and Opendorse have announced a strategic relationship to streamline access to name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities for student-athletes as they engage with their schools’ corporate brand sponsors.

LEARFIELD will work with Opendorse as its NIL marketplace provider, supplying multimedia rights school partners access to comprehensive NIL solutions. A free, school-specific marketplace will be made available to each university, allowing its student-athletes to connect with brands though a seamless, compliant platform. LEARFIELD will also promote Opendorse to local and national brand partners as the preferred marketplace for LEARFIELD Allied arrangements. Launched in late 2021, the LEARFIELD Allied program facilitates the connection between brands, student-athletes and universities, enabling brands to utilize university intellectual property (IP) in student-athlete marketing campaigns and advertisements. As brand partners now invest in LEARFIELD Allied programs, LEARFIELD will guide those brands to the Opendorse marketplace to identify the student-athletes that best fit their campaigns and messaging strategies.

The agreement will 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 brought forward by corporate brands within the Opendorse app.

“LEARFIELD is unmatched in its support of the college athletics ecosystem,” said Blake Lawrence, CEO, Opendorse. “Today’s announcement ushers NIL forward with increased opportunity and support for college athletes everywhere. There are nearly 500,000 student-athletes who are at the center of our business, and this new collaboration brings the necessary players together to truly impact those athletes through greater visibility and ease-of-use when identifying new NIL opportunities.”

This move builds upon LEARFIELD’s suite of solutions providing leadership in the NIL era and Opendorse’s best-in-class marketplace technology, having facilitated more than 100,000 deals with collegiate and professional athletes since its launch in 2012. In 2021, LEARFIELD launched COMPASS NIL, a comprehensive student-athlete education, disclosure, compliance, and monitoring platform, followed by the launch of LEARFIELD Allied. Together with the Opendorse NIL marketplace, brand advertisers can extend their school sponsorships and campaigns to include the reach and relevancy of student-athletes. Additionally, where schools use both COMPASS and Opendorse, student-athletes will be able to more efficiently disclose deals.

“From the outset, LEARFIELD’s commitment to school partners, brand partners and student-athletes has been providing structure to the evolving NIL space in a manner that maximizes opportunities for each and every stakeholder,” said Cole Gahagan, CEO, LEARFIELD. “In meeting that commitment, we are extraordinarily proud to partner with Opendorse to both widen the funnel of demand for NIL deals, and provide a streamlined solution for participating brands.”