What is FanStake? Everything You Need to Know About The New NIL Platform Partnering with 5-Star Kentucky Target Nate Ament

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2025 five-star forward Nate Ament made news on Wednesday when he cut his list to 11 schools, including Kentucky. However, there was also another interesting advent to his announcement: his partnership with FanStake.

FanStake is an NIL competitive recruiting platform that allows fans to contribute directly to an athlete’s NIL endorsement deal. As of Thursday morning, fans of more than 10 schools have donated upwards of $30,000 to Ament’s NIL.

KSR+ caught up with FanStake’s co-founder and CEO Greg Glass to get a better understanding of the platform. Glass said FanStake’s donations are contingent upon the athlete not only committing to the school but also being listed on the school’s roster come the fall.

“The athlete, ultimately if they choose the school — Kentucky, in your case — FanStake will enter into an agreement funded by the Kentucky fanbase,” Glass said. “If that athlete ends up going to Duke instead, the Kentucky fans get all their money back and it’s the Duke fanbase that ultimately funds this endorsement deal.”

For example, if Ament chooses Louisville, which is currently the highest bidder at $16,511, then he enters into an agreement with FanStake funded by that total. Even if the team he chooses doesn’t have the highest number on FanStake, he’ll still enter into an agreement for that school’s number. For example, Kentucky is currently at $650, so if he chooses Kentucky, the agreement will be for that number.

“It’s about creating a fair market value for the athlete,” Glass said. “They all understand that they are a supply of one and the demand is huge for their skillset. They haven’t been able to get to fair market value. Even tomorrow with the house rules coming, they’re still sort of capped with what the potential is. Our mission is, one, to expose that, which requires supply and demand.”

Democratizing the NIL Process

In addition to creating a fair market value for the athlete, FanStake has another mission. They want to democratize the NIL process.

“As I’m sure you’ve seen in cases like Bryce Underwood, you have a few big donors coming in with $1 million or $2 million and they write a check. Not every school has those particular resources,” Glass said. “What every school, even the G5 and beyond has is dedicated, fanatical fanbases. If you can get 100,000 fans to chip in $5, that’s as effective as one big booster writing a $500,000 check. That’s what we’re trying to do, but we’re doing it in a way that’s no risk for the fans as well. We feel like it benefits all parties.”

FanStake is also creating accounts and reaching agreements with current college athletes. The motivation there is retention.

“Ultimately, our belief is that this is great for the sport, in terms of having kids stay longer,” Glass said. “You can stay three or four years. You’re incentivized to stay. Most of these deals are for retention, not necessarily for recruiting or transfers. It’s going to be great for the NCAA because they can eventually reach collective bargaining.”

What are the Legal Hurdles?

The groundwork for FanStake to create the model was laid when the federal injunction was placed on the NCAA in March of 2024, which effectively said that the NCAA cannot prohibit athletes from negotiating in advance of selecting a school. FanStake, as Glass described, is essentially “a negotiating platform.”

“All of this is going to be illegal and an antitrust violation until the NCAA can have something [where] they can collectively bargain with the athletes,” Glass said. “It’s going to take something like this where, as an athlete, you can accept a salary cap if you can maximize NIL deals on top of that.”

Even when the landscape moves towards a house settlement and revenue-sharing models get implemented, Glass is still confident in FanStake’s model. That won’t change.

“What everyone sort of has acknowledged is that with revenue sharing, they’re establishing the new floor for specifically the Power Four conferences,” Glass said. “The new battleground and schools have talked about this, is how to get authentic NIL deals above the cap. That’s where it will be competitive.”

Allowing Group of Five Schools to Be Competitive

There’s so much talk about NIL in the realm of the power conferences. The top schools usually have the most NIL to get the most players. However, FanStake is making a play to get the others out there to a competitive point.

“FanStake allows all these schools to do that,” Glass said. “Frankly, for all these schools, whether you’re Power Four, G5, or beyond, they all have a revenue shortfall that they’re trying to figure out how to solve.”

This is particularly beneficial for smaller schools without big donor bases. Instead of tapping into a few wealthy donor sources, these schools can make an NIL impact on an individual basis.

“What’s difficult for the average fan is to give money every month and not know where it’s going,” Glass said. “What’s a lot easier is to play this fractional GM role, where you say, I would love to have these players stay on our team or recruit some good players and if you don’t get them or they leave, you get your money back. That’s actually a much smaller leap for the average fan out there, which we help them with.”

What are the Details of a FanStake Deal?

The typical FanStake deal sees the student-athlete get about 90 percent of the donations raised by the fans of the school they select. Interestingly, the teammates of the college roster that they select for the 2025-26 season (or whatever the next season is when they commit) get at least three percent if they are also signed with FanStake.

“The athlete can actually set that threshold and have the ability to boost it up,” Glass said. “We’re doing this intentionally because we’ve seen situations where there are issues with locker room camaraderie because certain individuals get the vast majority of the money, and then there are other important contributors who aren’t getting anything. We want to make sure that everyone can participate here.”

FanStake will earn the remaining revenue, which is usually about seven percent of the money raised by the team the athlete selects. Glass called it “by far one of the best deals in NIL in terms of how the money is distributed.”

“Our goal is to give as much as possible to the athletes and the teammates where everybody feels like this is beneficial to them,” Glass said.

Nate Ament’s Agreement with FanStake

Nate Ament, a 6-foot-9 forward out of Manassas, Virginia, is the first high-profile high school basketball recruit to agree to a deal with FanStake. The company has been working with Ament’s agency, LIFT Sports Management, to make this happen.

“Right now you send some change off to the collective without knowing where every dollar is going,” Ament’s agent, Derek Malloy of LIFT, told KSR+. “With FanStake the roles are reversed and the fans are collectively sitting in the GM’s chair to help build a roster for the upcoming season. I’m very proud of my team here at LIFT for being ahead of the curve in the NIL space and Nate for accepting his first equity deal that could really flourish in the future.”

FanStake reached out to LIFT and reached an agreement. However, just because a certain school may have the most money donated on FanStake does not mean Ament will necessarily choose that school.

“By no means, to be clear, is Nate saying, I’m going to go with whoever gives me the most money,” Glass said. “That is not his intention, nor is it our intention. I wouldn’t expect most athletes to go with whoever is in the lead. Most athletes want to make sure that they see what the fanbase is doing.”

FanStake’s donations just become another factor in the list of factors a student-athlete has to choose from. NIL is a factor for many college athletes, but not the only one.

“I would expect that decisions will always be made on a multitude of factors, again, FanStake being one of them, but not necessarily being the most important one,” Glass said.

Caleb Wilson Has a FanStake Account. What’s it Mean?

If you look at the FanStake website, you’ll notice another one of Kentucky’s top targets listed on the platform: Caleb Wilson. However, unlike Nate Ament, Wilson is not someone FanStake has a deal signed with.

As of Thursday morning, Wilson has $265 donated by Kentucky fans. He’s unable to collect any of that money until he signs on with FanStake.

“Let’s say he signs with Kentucky. We’ll reach out and say, Caleb, there’s $260 here for you, or whatever it ends up being whenever he makes his decision,” Glass said. “Are you interested in it? The intention, though, is to try and influence those decisions. These athletes are aware of FanStake. They’re checking it out.”

While $230 might not be a lot for a player getting millions in NIL money, it’s better than nothing. Eventually, as the platform grows, the money could reach higher heights and further influence decisions.

“Caleb, transparently, is probably getting more from other sources. I don’t believe $230 is going to be enough yet,” Glass said. “However, it’s kind of like a bonus. If it reaches a few thousand, that’s a lot of money. It makes a real, significant difference, and it’s another consideration in the multitude of variables that they’re considering.”

If Wilson decides not to sign an agreement with FanStake, he has a choice. He can give the money donated towards the school he selects to his teammates (only those with an agreement with FanStake), give it to a non-profit (and sign the endorsement) or the money would go back to the fans.

“We’re trying to keep it as low risk as possible for the fans,” Glass said.

Where Does Kentucky Play in All of This?

FanStake does not have deals with any current student-athletes at the University of Kentucky. That’s something they hope to change.

“It’s not necessarily just the big schools like Kentucky. It’s also G5 schools and athletes from various different sports,” Glass said. “We’re trying to be as broad as possible with this. Ultimately, the goal here is that you get the Kentucky fanbase on here, not just supporting recruits or transfer targets, but current team members. Part of it is, can we help Mark Pope keep this team together because we love what he’s doing and keep them from looking at the transfer portal with a successful season? That’s an important part of it that we want to get across.”

While the top recruits are getting the buzz right now, FanStake also wants to promote current players. Retention is a big part of their pitch.

“We want to get kids to stay three or four years because you’re being supported by your team, developing, and building a dynasty,” Glass said. “That’s what this enables. The goal here is for the Kentucky fanbase to come on and support your team today. As well as supporting other recruits you’d like to see join. Then, when it comes time for them to make a decision, there’s money in the platform for them to say actually, I’m going to stay at Kentucky because I have the incentive to stay here rather than putting my name in the portal and going somewhere else.”