Ohio Northern Athletics partners with Opendorse as official NIL marketplace for ONU student-athletes

Ohio Northern Athletics partners with Opendorse as official NIL marketplace for ONU student-athletes
February 17, 2023

| NIL Marketplace Link |

ADA — The Ohio Northern athletics department and Opendorse have partnered to launch the official name, image and likeness marketplace for Polar Bear student-athletes. Opendorse is the industry leader in NIL, working to provide student-athletes with the education and tools to maximize their value and marketability. This partnership is the first of its kind in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

"NIL is still a relatively new concept in the NCAA," said ONU director of athletics Tom Simmons. "It is our responsibility to our student-athletes to help them use NIL to their advantage while staying within the NCAA and university guidelines. We are among the first Division III universities to take this step forward and hope that our student-athletes will see many benefits."

About Opendorse

  • Opendorse, the NIL company, is the leading technology provider in the athlete endorsement industry. More than 95,000 athletes use Opendorse to understand, build, and monetize their name, image, and likeness (NIL) with support from thousands of brands, fans, sponsors, donors and partners including Team USA, PGA TOUR, NFLPA, MLBPA, WNBPA, LPGA, over 100 professional and collegiate sports teams. 
  • Opendorse maximizes NIL value for student-athletes, while delivering security and simplicity for all involved parties.

Partnership

  • The partnership provides every ONU student-athlete with full access to the company's all-in-one NIL platform. 
    • Providing student-athletes and staff with Opendorse's best-in-class compliance, content and education tools.
    • Compliance: upon completing NIL deals, athletes can automatically disclose activity details to their institution to ensure eligibility.
    • Content: athletes receive on-demand access to share photos and videos from games, practice and more. Athletes can also receive content suggestions from their teams, encouraging fan engagement, fundraising initiatives, ticket sales and more.
    • Education: athletes receive in-person and on-demand virtual education sessions from industry leaders at companies including Meta, Overtime, Players' Tribune, Opendorse and more.
  • Through the partnership, current and alumni ONU student-athletes can be found on the ONU Opendorse Marketplace.

Student-Athlete experience

  • In addition to industry-leading NIL content, compliance and education solutions, every ONU athlete will receive an Opendorse profile, which they can customize and promote to fans on their personal social media channels. 
  • Athletes review opportunities, receive deals, accept compensation, and disclose NIL activities to their institution, all within the Opendorse app.

"We are excited to offer this service," Simmons said. "The NIL world will certainly grow and we want to be leaders when it comes to educating our student-athletes. Providing them with the resources to create and enhance their personal brands is part of the new world in intercollegiate athletics. We also believe there is an educational benefit to students in the Sport Management major in the Dicke College of Business Administration as well as students in the Petit College of Law."

Ohio Northern student-athletes will have the opportunity to sign up and learn more about Opendorse in the coming weeks.