Ottawa, KS – Ottawa University (KS) Braves Athletics is proud to announce a partnership with Opendorse, a nationally recognized leader in the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) landscape and a 2023 Time Magazine Top 100 Most Influential Companies, to create an all-in-one NIL platform for the department.
As the exclusive NIL partner of the NAIA, Opendorse is the leader in athlete marketplace and NIL technology. Their comprehensive NIL solutions are designed to help athletes understand, build, protect, and monetize their brand value, in addition to streamlining deals, compliance disclosures, and secure payment. This collaboration aims to empower student athletes to effectively build and manage their personal brands while navigating the dynamic world of collegiate sports.
“This is new territory for Ottawa University. Embracing the learning curve while intentionally educating our student-athletes on the ever-evolving landscape of NIL is very important to us,” says Janet Eaton-Smith, Ottawa University’s Kansas Campus Director of Athletics. “Colleges and universities our size don’t have the budget for an NIL department and Opendorse will serve that role, providing brand protection, deal brokering, and student-athlete guidance as we navigate the process.”
Through an online hub and mobile app, Opendorse provides the technology and services to cover student-athletes, coaches and athletic department staff with compliance, content and educational tools that will be used to help them navigate the rapidly evolving industry. The University is among 30+ NAIA programs nationwide to provide a single marketplace to send supporters to access student-athletes and offer compliant opportunities.
The partnership will ensure student-athlete eligibility by enabling OU Braves student-athletes to disclose any NIL deals with the University compliance office and the NAIA. The University is working diligently with Opendorse to finalize an institutional NIL policy to launch for fall 2024.
Equipping the OU Braves athletic department with the best in-class NIL education resources, Opendorse will provide in-person education sessions on-campus and virtually for our athletes, coaches, department staff, external stakeholders and supporters. Student-athletes will also have access to on-demand education in the app to ensure holistic and personalized development for every athlete.
Ottawa University plans to launch a campus-specific NIL marketplace this fall. This marketplace will allow fans, brands, donors and sponsors to directly support and maximize NIL success for OU Braves student-athletes. Each student-athlete will have their own fully customizable Opendorse profile.
Why Opendorse
- Opendorse maximizes NIL opportunities for student-athletes, while delivering security and simplicity for all involved parties.
- Opendorse is the exclusive NIL partner of the NAIA, establishing the first-ever association-wide deal in college athletics.
- The Opendorse-powered marketplace is built on a decade of athlete marketing technology and experience. Opendorse has facilitated hundreds of thousands of NIL deals and endorsements with athletes at every level of sports. The marketplace is used by over 100,000 athletes to manage deals from pitch to payment, and even tax prep, every day.
- The NIL company launched its initial school-specific NIL marketplaces with partners including Oregon, Texas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Oregon State and Memphis throughout the spring of 2022. Student-athletes at these institutions experienced a 193% increase in NIL opportunities in the first month after the marketplace's launch.
About Opendorse
Opendorse is the leading athlete marketplace and NIL company, providing technology and services to the athlete endorsement industry. More than 100,000 athletes use Opendorse to build and monetize their name, image, and likeness with support from the world's top brands, colleges, NIL collectives, and partners including Team USA, LEARFIELD, Keller Williams Real Estate, and more.