Inside MOGL, NBC Sports Athlete Direct's NIL partnership

Last week, the name, image and likeness marketplace and software provider MOGL and NBCUniversal’s NIL program NBC Sports Athlete Direct announced a partnership. MOGL’s software will power NBC Sports Athlete Direct, which NBCUniversal launched in April 2022 with an initial focus on athletes at Notre Dame, Temple and Vanderbilt.

MOGL co-founder and CEO Ayden Syal said more than 10,000 athletes have signed up for the marketplace. Major brands purchase ad space through NBC. The executives of those companies can turn to NBC Sports Athlete Direct if they want college athletes to promote their products or services. Those advertisers will now have access to the athletes who have signed up for MOGL.

“NBC obviously has a really powerful advertising base of customers that advertise across NBC’s networks at the local, national and regional level, and they were looking for a scalable solution to really connect all of these parties with college athlete influencers to help build awareness,” Syal told On3.

Syal estimates the two companies started working together six months ago on a campaign-by-campaign basis for companies such as Peacock. They’re now partners.

“NBC evaluated all of the players in this space when evaluating a technological partner here,” Syal said.

Syal said there’s no official term length for the partnership.

“MOGL’s ability to stay up to date on compliance, communicate directly with student-athletes, and assist in compensating participants in a timely and efficient manner are all major benefits in our collaboration,” NBC Sports SVP of Strategic Initiatives Damon Phillips wrote in an email to On3.

‘NBC obviously has a really powerful advertising base’

Phillips previously told On3 that NBC Sports Athlete Direct’s focus upon its launch was on “the other 99%” of athletes. He described the platform as offering a turnkey solution and one that’s more premium, regarding the number of athletes involved in a given marketing campaign and the size of their followings online.

“We’re looking at this as more of a scale opportunity that if we can aggregate athletes from across the country – and maybe they only have 2,000 followers or they have 3,000 followers – now you’re talking about a national Gen Z influencer network that’s highly engaged,” Phillips said. “And that’s what advertisers want.”

NBCUniversal appears to be very deliberate in its entrance into the NIL landscape. Phillips has used phrases like pilot program and A/B testing when describing NBC Sports Athlete Direct initiatives and campaigns.

One of NBC Sports Athlete Direct’s first campaigns involved college athletes promoting MLB Sunday Leadoff on social media. Athletes who Phillips described as authentic fans of the Chicago Cubs or Philadelphia Phillies promoted the presentation of a game between the teams. The athletes could earn up to $100, including $10 for sharing the analytics of how their social media posts performed.

“Your question probably is about, ‘Why the $10 for analytics?’ right?” Phillips said, laughing. “When we bring advertisers on, they want to understand the return on investment.”

NBC Sports Athlete Direct launched an individual fan club with Notre Dame running back Chris Tyree, then a team-wide fan club with the Loyola Chicago men’s basketball team. Fans could purchase a membership to Tyree’s fan club for $99.99 in exchange for benefits such as access to a members-only podcast, an autographed photo, a virtual meet and greet, six months of Peacock Premium and two movie tickets through Fandango.

Fans could purchase a membership to the Ramblers’ fan club for $29.99.

“This next iteration is looking at an entire team participating so we can compare and contrast, and see which model works better or it might not be an ‘either or,'” Phillips said. “It could be an ‘and.’”

NBCUniversal owns USA Network, which broadcasted a Loyola Chicago home game against George Mason in February. Thanks to that alignment, there were in-game promotions for the fan club during the broadcast.

“There’s a wide variety of opportunities at hand,” Syal said. “I do think that we’ll see a healthy expansion of the opportunities beyond just social media sponsorships and other endorsements into on-air, into appearances, into integrated advertisements across all of NBC’s channels, not just on-air. They obviously manage a ton of regional sports networks, websites, everything like that, streaming services. That’s what excites us so much about this.”

Competition among NIL marketplaces

There are numerous NIL marketplaces, which some companies provide through contractual relationships with institutions, while others allow athletes to sign up independently.

“We are of the opinion,” Syal said, “that athletes should be on all marketplaces and so it’ll be really interesting to see how the marketplace industry evolves, given that (for) athletes, there are different opportunities and different deals and different partners on every marketplace but obviously we’re pretty confident in our approach.”

Some third-party providers that offer one or more online marketplaces have marketed some of their technological products or services to NIL collectives, given the number of transactions and the amount of money that flows through them. For example, the NIL technology company Opendorse has previously purchased online ad placements through sponsored Google search results when users search for NIL collectives.

While the future of collectives is unknown, such as the long-term sustainability of their fundraising and whether institutions or their independent fundraising organizations will absorb them, the various for-profit, not-for-profit and nonprofit organizations are responsible for providing a significant amount of NIL-related income. That’s why many third-party companies in the industry have targeted collectives as one potential consumer or client base.

In one example of potential differentiation among NIL marketplaces, MOGL has targeted institutions and athletes outside the Division I ranks.

In a news release in which MOGL announced its partnership with Winona State University in February, the company described a “focus on DII and DIII student-athletes who have been underserved in the NIL space.”

‘Already started to observe a good amount of consolidation’

Companies that provide software or online marketplaces within the NIL ecosystem could be due for additional consolidation in the years to come, especially if the compensation model for college athletes changes.

“I think the industry’s at a really interesting inflection point from a marketplace perspective because we’ve already started to observe a good amount of consolidation or potentially bowing out of the industry if you will,” Syal said. “I would say six months ago we were aware of more marketplaces than currently exist and obviously the funding and macroeconomic environment has a lot to do with that. But I think as marketplaces start to ‘pick their lane,’ the way that we’ve always approached it at MOGL is that are a few core pillars that are non-negotiables for athletes.”

MOGL’s non-negotiables, according to Syal, include the need for there to be “a large, healthy variety” of NIL opportunities for athletes, automated compliance and tax processes, and secure and seamless payments.

“The NIL space is still evolving,” Phillips wrote in an email. “The organizations that will thrive are going to be the ones that deliver exceptional value to key stakeholders in the NIL ecosystem – and those stakeholders are student-athletes, coaches, athletic administrators, and advertisers.”

Last week, former MOGL director of athlete education and compliance Timothy Bryson said on Twitter that “budget cuts eliminated my role.” MOGL announced the hiring of Bryson last September. Syal declined to comment on MOGL’s current staffing level or financial status.