LinkTree signs five athletes, including LSU’s Shareef O’Neal, to new NIL deal

Australian-based linking platform LinkTree announced its first group of college athlete partners on Wednesday, and the class of student-athletes includes a famous name.

Shareef O’Neal, an LSU and former UCLA forward and the son of NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, is among five athletes that have signed on with Linktree, a company aiming to address the issues associated with having multiple avenues to one’s content, instead moving them all into one platform with one link.

As Boardroom put it, “Linktree enables creators, brands, athletes, artists, publishers, agencies, and businesses of all sizes to curate an online ecosystem, engage with their audience and monetize their passion.”

Types of content that can be put together using the platform includes videos, articles, social media, websites and stores, among other things. One can collect the payments from the various avenues through the site as well.

Four additional athletes join LinkTree partnership

The other athletes cashing in in the NIL space with the company include Virginia volleyball player Alana Walker, Palm Beach Atlantic golfer Grant Horvat, UCLA gymnast Margzetta Frazier and Kentucky track and field athlete Masai Russell. 

What do all of the athletes have in common? They already have a personal brand. For example, O’Neal has sold non-fungible tokens and donated the money to the American Heart Association. Walker has over 400,000 followers between TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, while Frazier has 126,000 and frequently speaks out about mental health and racial issues in college sports.

“We are so proud to have Margzetta, Grant, Shareef, Masai, and Alana join #teamlinktree,” said Anthony Zaccaria, Linktree co-founder and chief commercial officer, in an official statement. “All five athletes bring authenticity and athletic prowess to the table, and we are so pleased that they all have chosen Linktree as the way to share their stories. These partnerships are just the beginning and we can’t wait to see what Margzetta, Grant, Shareef, Masai, and Alana create and where their passions – athletic or otherwise – take them.”

The platform has a host of other famous users, including the NFL, MLB, Los Angeles Clippers, Dwayne Wade, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and the Atlanta Dream.

It was established in 2016 and has in excess of 20 million users. LinkTree has been featured in places like Entrepreneur and Forbes, and was included on CNBC’s “Upstart 100” list in 2019. They previously expanded into the sports world via the “Game Face” podcast, which is hosted by college sports business expert Kristi Dosh.