Florida State collective partners with firm to ‘boost NIL opportunities’

Rising Spear – a Name, Image and Likeness collective focused on Florida State – announced a new partnership that is aimed at giving Seminole athletes “the best NIL opportunities in the country.”

Rising Spear is partnering with MarketPryce – an online marketplace that can connect college athletes with brands for partnerships – in a deal that aims to create more beneficial and larger number of NIL deals for FSU athletes.

MarketPryce CEO Jason Bergman said Rising Spear will be covering membership to the marketplace over the next two years. He said he knows every FSU student-athlete will not be signing up for MarketPryce. But the partnership’s goal is to get there as soon as possible.

Deal aims to grow Florida State athletes’ NIL brand

Bergman said their technology allows Florida State student-athletes to connect with more than 500 companies. It will also help them get paid within 24 hours of closing a deal – using only a few clicks. It’s similar to a program that Bergman, a Florida grad, did with Gator student-athletes.

“They’ll be able to open our app and instantly gain access to hundreds of brands who are actively seeking endorsement deals with athletes,” Bergman said. “On top of that, they’ll have access to our best-in-class athlete strategy team to grow their personal brands and network with other athletes in our community.

“The MarketPryce platform provides direct communication between Rising Spear student-athletes, nationally recognized brands and local businesses in Tallahassee. This partnership also presents a unique opportunity for ‘Nole Friendly’ businesses across the country to capitalize on the NIL movement, grow their brands, and work with their favorite FSU players hailing from coast to coast.”

MarketPryce says NIL creating ‘gold rush’

MarketPryce has been in business since 2020. It raised $3 million in a seed round last August, according to Forbes. Bergman founded MarketPryce in February 2020 with Shehryar Khan, a former colleague at Robly, an email marketing firm.

“Brands see it as a really good opportunity to reach a younger demographic,” Bergman told Forbes. “They see it as a big marketing opportunity because it’s not super-expensive to work with college athletes. Everyone’s talking about it now. It’s like a gold rush to college athletes. We have tons of companies that have just made campaigns specifically for student-athletes because of it.”

MarketPryce lists NFL star Tyreek Hill, US Women’s National Soccer Team stars Christen Press and Kelly O’Hara and former MLB star David Ortiz as some athletes that have worked with the company.

Rising Spear is one of two FSU-focused collectives that have launched since student-athletes have been allowed to profit off their NIL.

Bob Davis and Alan Flaumenhaft, former members of the executive board of directors of Seminole Boosters, founded Rising Spear.

There are two NIL options as part of Rising Spear. For Gold Standard, Rising Spear finds a booster-owned company and enlists an athlete as a sponsor. For Garnet Spirit, boosters donate to a charity and get a tax write-off. Athletes make charitable appearances to earn compensation.

The deal at Florida State is one of a growing number of companies partnering with collectives to help student-athletes attempt to monetize NIL. For example, N100 is a donor-driven collective assembled to help Nebraska student-athletes monetize their NIL.