Think NIL web site
Opportunity knocked in recent days for TCU student-athletes seeking a booth, so to speak, in the marketplace most commonly referred to as the “NIL space.”
FanJolt and Think NIL, a TCU collective, have partnered to provide TCU athletes opportunities to monetize their “name, image, and likeness.” FanJolt, an experiential digital platform founded in 2022, creates interactions between fans and a curated list of celebrities and, now, some college athletes.
Women’s basketball player Knisha Godfrey, men’s basketball player Eddie Lampkin, and Cam Lancaster, a women’s soccer player, have all come to an agreement to use the FanJolt platform.
FanJolt is similar to those platforms that have sprung up in recent years allowing a celebrity to send a personalized message to a fan for a fee. FanJolt’s platform will allow for messaging through video or audio, private messaging through a FanJolt TCU app, digitally signed posters with a motivational message, and social media follows.
Meanwhile, fans can reward them in live time with cash tokens, auctions, and more.
“It’s useful for all student-athletes, not just the superstars,” says Trevor Short, founder and CEO of FanJolt, in a phone conversation. “I’m a former college tennis player. I know if I had had a platform like ours available to me in college, because I hustle and I like the fans, and I’m outgoing, a platform like this probably could have created an extra couple hundred dollars a week of revenue. Which would have been more than what I had, which was zero, and changed my college experience.
“I think there are lot of those diamonds in the rough, let’s call it, throughout the country of student-athletes with a platform like this if they’re willing to go out there and hustle a little bit, it gives them a way to monetize [NIL].”
Think NIL is a collective led by TCU Neeley School of Business alum Guillermo Zamarripa, a media and entertainment executive, and serial entrepreneur, and Brent Cunningham, a former TCU athletics administrator.
FanJolt has agreements with NIL collectives at Florida State, Kansas, South Carolina, Middle Tennessee State — Short’s alma mater — and Wichita State, among others, he says.
A collective at Virginia, Cavalier Futures, was the first to inquire about converting the FanJolt platform to the NIL space. FanJolt emerged from an idea to create a digital platform to connect celebrities with fans online in a multiple of different ways to raise money for their charities.
“It was that simple,” Short says. “That was the idea. Using it as a way to support great causes.”
The launch was highly successful. Clients include Rafael Nadal’s foundation, Aaron Judge’s #AllRise Foundation, Patrick Mahomes’ 15 and the Mahomies Foundation, Tua Tagovailoa’s foundation, and Jewel’s Inspiring Children Foundation. Daymond John and Kevin O’Leary, both of “Shark Tank,” are also contracted with FanJolt.
That element of charity has been adopted by the NIL concept. Student-athletes are required to donate some of what they earn on FanJolt to a nonprofit of their choice.
“We are requiring that,” Short says.
There is also an educational piece. Daymond John has offered his online financial literacy course, thousands of dollars in value, to those student-athletes under contract with FanJolt.
Short says that product specific to TCU’s athletes will be delivered to the school in August, with hopes for more student-athletes to join the platform.
“Think NIL is always looking for new avenues to bring Name, Image & 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,” says 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. 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.”