Report: Opendorse, Teamworks reveal $16 million Day 1 rev-share distribution to players, staggering June numbers

The era of revenue sharing is here, opening on July 1st. Since then, Opendorse and Teamworks, both of which are systems that schools are using to distribute that rev-share to athletes, have told On3’s Pete Nakos and Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger that there are some staggering numbers.

Between Opendorse and Teamworks, Dellenger reports that more than $16 million was distributed from schools to student-athletes, and Nakos reported Opendorse distributed $10 million on July 1. That, notably, doesn’t include any information on distribution from the Big 12 and Big Ten, who reached an agreement to distribute through PayPal, and PayPal hasn’t shared any of that information to this point.

However, it goes beyond those rev-share numbers, making $16 million seem like a relatively small figure. Teamworks also tells Dellenger that there were massive June numbers being paid to student-athletes through collectives. That’s over $71 million to athletes in June. The reason that number got so high is likely due to schools and collectives front-loading payments before the House settlement took effect on July 1st.

The House settlement allows for rev-share. It has also changed enforcement over NIL deals. NIL deals above $600 will need third-party approval and will be sent to a new clearinghouse called NIL Go. That oversight is hoping to set a new market. There is, on top of that, a new enforcement agency in place called the College Sports Commission. 

In essence, schools and collectives wanted to get those deals done in June, so there would be less oversight on them. There can still be NIL deals, which are different and unique from rev-share, but they’re going to need approval. There’s also going to be questions about how the College Sports Commission handles these types of investigations.

The House settlement allows for rev-share where each school can distribute as much as $20.5 million to their student-athletes. Schools can distribute that as they wish, but football is expected to receive the most at schools with FBS programs.

The Big Ten, PayPal make payments on behalf of schools

While Ross Dellenger reported that PayPal had not made its figures public, there is some interesting insight that can be gleaned from their process with the Big Ten. In it, Dellenger adds that it is the conference itself making payments on behalf of schools.

Essentially, it works by the schools submitting the athletes who are supposed to receive payments, and for what amount. It is supposed to avoid complications from the school managing those payments. On Tuesday, July 1st, the Big Ten began this process by sharing revenue with athletes from three schools. By the end of the month, all schools will have money distributed.

As was the case with schools using Opendorse and Teamworks, many Big Ten schools front-loaded payments in June. That helped to create those smaller initial distributions on Tuesday.