What formation of VaynerBasketball means for college basketball, NIL

VaynerSports will soon have a basketball division.

AJ and Gary Vaynerchuk co-founded the sports agency back in 2016, establishing themselves in football, baseball and combat. The firm has also recently made waves in gaming and NIL. It’s next sport will be basketball.

Announced Monday afternoon, the new division of VaynerSports will be led by Gary and Bay Frazier, who will serve as president and CEO. Frazier has long been Carmelo Anthony‘s business manager and has plenty of contacts in the basketball world.

While the focus will obviously be in the professional landscape, VaynerSports told On3 it will deal at the high school and college basketball level thanks to name, image and likeness.

“For us, we’ve been really patient in regards to entering the basketball world,” AJ Vaynerchuk told On3. “We wanted to find the right partners and the trust and the background that we have with Bay and Carmelo — just the timing of everything made it makes sense. As far as NIL, kind of fitting both sides, we feel as if with NIL being almost fully matured at this point, almost two years in, you know, Bay’s experience and network paired up with our marketing background and firepower allows us to be successful with basketball players, some of the most marketable athletes in the world by sport.

“We just think we’re going to really thrive both with you know, kids that can partake in NIL but also professionally.

Vayner building out NIL roster

Vayner has not had any problem signing some of the top college football athletes in the country, repping quarterbacks Sam Hartman and Kyle McCord along with Alabama cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry.

In the first 21 months of NIL, college football and basketball have specifically become a feeding ground for top-tier agencies to begin relationships with athletes before they turn professional. Even in states where high school athletes are now allowed to sign endorsement deals, some players are signing representation.

WME Sports has found success in high school and college basketball, signing notable players like Aliyah Boston, Gradey Dick and DJ Wagner Jr. VaynerSports will probably try to play in the same lane, signing some of the sport’s top athletes who also have marketability.

This spring’s college basketball transfer portal has been extremely active, in part due to NIL. More than 20 percent of Division I scholarship men’s basketball players have entered the transfer portal, including at least eight reigning conference players of the year who have eligibility remaining. Just like college football, the portal has turned into free agency with some athletes solely entering to try and leverage their value.

“I’m not saying every coaching staff in the country is tampering but there are third parties that are tampering,” Jason Belzer, who’s the co-founder and CEO of Student Athlete NIL, which provides support to roughly 20 NIL collectives nationally told On3’s Andy Wittry. “Absolutely. There are absolutely people that are going – whether it’s a collective or an AAU coach or somebody that is going out and saying, ‘Hey, you can get a lot more in this market than what you’re getting now,’ because that’s in their best interest, right?

“Everybody’s looking to make a buck.”