Thanks to a new partnership between FanJolt and Think NIL, TCU athletes will soon have the opportunity for enhanced interaction with fans to further monetize their name, image and likeness (NIL).
The partnership provides a white-labeled version of FanJolt branded specifically with Think NIL colors and logos (TCU colors), available exclusively for TCU athletes. This version will be available for back-to-school in August.
Think NIL is a TCU collective that was explicitly created to manage the new landscape of funding opportunities for athletes following last year’s decision by the NCAA to allow student athletes to earn money from marketing their name, image and likeness.
FanJolt is a new experiential platform that launched in 2022. It is designed to create interactions between fans and student-athletes, allowing them to capitalize on all NIL opportunities, along with supporting the athlete’s favorite causes.
This new partnership will create opportunities on the platform and through the FanJolt app for TCU athletes to connect directly with fans through live broadcasts, personalized messages, recorded videos and more for a fee to earn revenue from their NIL.
“The white label allows the university or collective to have all their student-athletes under their own site with their own brand, colors, logos etc.,” explained Trevor Short, founder and CEO of FanJolt. “In addition, it makes it easy for financial reporting as we can easily provide the program with a monthly report of what all their student-athletes made, how many interactions etc.”
Student-athletes can create their own account, decide which interactions they wish to make available to their fans, set their own pricing and simply begin connecting with their fans in a variety of ways, Short noted. These include 1-on-1 live video chats, fan videos, fan audios, digital posters, social follows on all major platforms.
Athletes can also digitally sign posters, as well as private message and/or live stream with fans. Meanwhile fans can reward them in live time with cash tokens, auctions and more. Portions of the proceeds for FanJolt events go to the charity of each athlete’s choice.
“All Talent on FanJolt are required to donate a percentage of their earnings to a charity of their choice, which we feel is important for these student-athletes to learn from a young age,” Short said.
Short said the idea is to offer as many affordable options for ways in which fans can connect with their favorite student-athletes.
“Think NIL is always looking for new avenues to bring name, image and likeness opportunities to TCU student-athletes. After meeting with the FanJolt team, it was clear we needed to present this platform to our student-athletes,” said Brent Cunningham, Vice President of Operations for Think NIL.
“FanJolt provides a unique opportunity for fans to engage directly with TCU student-athletes, allowing the student-athletes to engage in a more personal setting with their fanbase,” Cunningham continued. “Think NIL is excited to be one of the early adopters of FanJolt at the collegiate level and can’t wait to see our student-athletes take advantage of this tool.”
Along with the agreement with TCU, Short said, FanJolt has commitments from Florida State, Kansas, Wichita State, Middle Tennessee State, Virginia, South Carolina, and Ohio State.
Other organizations supported by FanJolt include the Rafael Nadal Foundation, Aaron Judge’s #AllRise Foundation, Patrick Mahomes’ 15 and the Mahomies Foundation, Tua Tagovailoa’s Tua Foundation, and Jewel’s Inspiring Children Foundation.
In addition, Short announced that Shark Tank star Daymond John will be providing his Financial Literacy Course “Daymond on Demand” to all student-athletes on the FanJolt platform.
“Now that thousands of student-athletes are making money from their NIL, they need to learn about managing their money, preparing for taxes, setting up companies and much more,” Short said. “We are excited to partner with Daymond on this to help educate student athletes across the country.”