ONIT Athlete Paid $1.6 Million in NIL this Fall
ONIT Athlete, a rapidly growing Boise, Idaho-based NIL trading card company, has reported over $1.6 million in NIL royalty payments to student-athletes during the fall 2023 athletic season. This sum of money flowing into the pockets of student-athletes is significant; however, the royalty payments become even more impressive when it is noted that ONIT Athlete currently offers trading cards at only 25 of the 363 Division I Universities nationwide.
Much of ONIT Athlete's early success has been predicated on the company’s dedication to forming strategic partnerships with some of the NCAA’s biggest teams and brands. Three of the four teams invited to this year’s College Football Playoff, Alabama, Washington, and Texas, are part of the ONIT Athlete trading card network –this year’s most notable snub, Florida State, also works with ONIT.
Without a doubt, the fall season is the biggest time of the year for college sports, with football dominating the market for NIL merchandise and collectibles. Sheridan Hodson, Co-Founder of ONIT Athlete, highlights a commitment to creating opportunities outside of just football: “ONIT has proven to be the NIL leader in trading card collectibles, and we are very enthusiastic about creating substantial NIL opportunities for athletes on men's and women's teams.”
Offering collectibles in Men’s Basketball, Women’s Volleyball, and Women’s Soccer, ONIT Athlete already has broken ground on including offerings from a diverse array of teams. In the coming weeks, the company will introduce many new teams, primarily in men's and women's basketball, to its already impressive roster. Also included in this early 2024 rollout will be a collection of teams from novel sports, like women’s basketball, not previously offered by ONIT Athlete: gymnastics, wrestling, and hockey.
Projections from this expansion indicate a significant increase in money paid to student-athletes; according to Hodson: “Our goal is working with over 10,000 athletes in 2024 and paying more than $7 million in NIL payments to collegiate student-athletes.”
This announcement comes on the heels of ONIT Athlete’s strategic partnership with another prosperous NIL-specific merchandise company, Campus Ink’s NIL Store. This partnership will expand the network of ONIT Athlete schools and provide additional marketplaces and visibility for the product. The NIL Store Network, which specializes in clothing, will be able to provide fanbases with a more diverse selection of team and player-licensed merchandise.
The proliferation of ONIT Athlete’s offerings in schools nationwide benefits the NIL economy as a whole. With question marks still surrounding the main driver of NIL wealth – NIL collective contracts the formation of legitimate industries like ONIT Athlete trading cards provide a sustainable secondary income source. One that is less market and booster-dependent than the collective payment regime. Implementing these royalty-based markets in player licensing for video games, merchandise, and collectibles is paramount in providing a safety net for athlete payment in the event that the current and fragile NIL collective system goes belly up.
