The players’ associations of the NFL and MLB have collaborated to establish OneTeam Partners, a new marketing company that aims to help athletes across all sports capitalise on their name, image and likeness.
The firm’s foremost priority will lie with advising athletes on how to increase their revenue share for representation specifically when it comes to revenue generated from video games and trading cards.
Heading up the new venture is Ahmad Nassar, president of the NFL Players Inc, which operates as the NFLPA’s licensing division. The firm will also create a venture fund, with 60% of the equity going to sports unions and the remainder taken by RedBird Capital, the venture capitalist behind OneTeam Partners.
Talking to Bloomberg, Nassar stated: “What we want to do is optimize products across sports, whether it’s esports or cricket in India or North American sports. We think there’s so much room to run in terms of the types of games and products that are available to fans. The realization for all of us was partnering with outside capital and capitalizing this business. That was the missing ingredient.”
News of the new marketing firm follows on from recent developments in California where Governor Gavin Newsom signed what could prove to be a piece of ground-breaking legislation in the shape of the Fair Pay to Play Act (SB 206). Drawn up by Senators Nancy Skinner and Steven Bradford, it gives college student athletes in California the ability to benefit financially from their name, image and likeness.
