Building and commercializing the athlete’s name, image and likeness

Key topic

Professional athletes have a relatively short career playing sport, living most of their life from earnings made off the field, which is why it is important that they are proactive when it comes to their financial planning. One of the many pillars of good financial planning is building the athlete’s personal brand in order to maximize their earning potential off the field, during and after their sports career.  An athlete’s sports career may end, but a strong brand will continue to exist, assisting in building wealth beyond the athlete’s playing years.

Learning objectives

• It is important for athletes to have an accurate picture of where they are in terms of their personal branding so that they can plan their future branding activities accordingly.
• A sports celebrity brand can be built with an appropriate branding plan.
• Strengthening the athlete’s brand equity is important since it forms the basis of an athlete’s commercial value from a consumer’s point of view.
• Athletes can adapt their branding strategy to take full advantage of their different life/work phases.
• The athlete’s brand can be commercialized in a number of ways to bring additional revenue to the athlete.
• A proper brand management strategy ensures that the athlete becomes and stays marketable.
• Legally protecting the athlete’s sports brand ensures that potential revenues from the commercialization of such brand are enjoyed by the athlete as their lawful owner.

Introduction

The athlete’s brand, its development and the commercial use of the athlete’s NIL are an integral part of the athlete’s career.  As a result, it is very important to build and capitalize on your brand and create proper personal marketing strategies with well-defined branding activities which are in line with your financial and life plan.

Athletes need to understand that strong brands allow one to reach beyond their sport, to a broader, more diverse crowd. Brands go beyond the sport, they’re about who you are and how you will eventually be remembered as, ten or twenty years from now. It’s therefore vital for athletes that they don’t lose sight of their branding strategy and constantly work on promoting her brand, building their fanbase, and try to achieve higher engagement with their fans through virtual platforms.

The most important pillar in an athlete’s branding strategy, is higher engagement through virtual platforms. Creating videos on YouTube, live Q&As as well as podcasts are just a few examples of how athletes can become more active in the virtual world that we currently live in. After all, nearly everyone can access these platforms, giving the athlete an immense opportunity to expand their fanbase to anyone with access to these platforms. Having said that, it’s important for athletes to keep their loyal and core fanbase engaged, by creating both sports-focused and personal content and providing insights into their future career plans and goals.

Female athletes lack behind male athletes when it comes to building and promoting their brands. This is slowly changing, as is reflected in the changes in sponsorship and endorsement preferences of corporations. At the same time, the fact that women were/ are underutilizing their brand capabilities means that the capacity for improvement is big.

The athlete’s brand and its components

The athlete’s brand has three identifiable main components which are vital in the potential influence of the sports brand to its audience and fan base.  These components are:

• Athletic Performance
• Attractive Personality
• Marketable Lifestyle

Each of the above components consists of several sub-components which must be thoroughly analyzed, interpreted and utilized accordingly when creating the athlete’s brand strategy.

The overall appeal of the athlete’s image can be evaluated by analyzing the components of her image from a consumer’s point of view; this is quite a useful evaluation tool for brands looking to recruit the best celebrity athlete as their brand ambassador.  Analyzing an athlete’s image components helps brands determine the massiveness and extent of the appeal athletes have with their fans, and the potential ability to influence their fans’ purchasing habits.  In addition, by analyzing their image components and sub-components, athletes can create suitable strategies for the commercial usage of their sports status. . In the digital age, athlete branding is no longer limited to traditional media exposure. Social media engagement, direct-to-fan platforms, and digital content creation have become critical components in assessing an athlete’s marketability.  The main components of an athlete’s image and their sub-components are discussed below in detail.

Athletic performance reflects an athlete’s performance related features.  Usually, but not always, an excellent athletic performance is a prerequisite in building the athlete’s personal sports brand. The first touch point of athletes with fans is usually through their on-the-field performance; an excellent performance always catches the eye of spectators and sports fans and triggers the curiosity to learn more about a high performing athlete.  Athletic performance has several sub-components which can be utilized when building the personal sports brand and they are:

• Athletic expertise – An athlete’s individual athletic capability and achievement. How do they rank in terms of their capabilities? Trophies won?
• Competition style – An athlete’s sports playing style. Is she aggressive? Intelligent? Technical?
• Sportsmanship – How the athlete approaches the game, i.e. with respect for the game, abides by fair play rules, etc.
• Rivalry – The athlete’s competitive relationship with other athletes. Does she like to create “fight” on the pitch? Provoke opponents?

Attractive personality refers to an athlete’s personality characteristics and has the following components:

• Personality attractiveness – The personality qualities and characteristics of the athlete that fans and spectators find attractive.
• Being a symbol – An athlete’s appealing and engaging personal style which transforms them into a symbol.
• Sports fitness – An athlete’s fitness within their sport.

Marketable lifestyle is all about the athlete’s off-field marketable features such as:

• The athlete’s life story– An appealing, interesting off-field life story that includes a message and reflects the athlete’s personal values. Ronda Rousey is a good example. She came from a disadvantaged background and succeeded in several industries. Studies show that fans of women sports are much more interested in learning more about their favorite athletes’ personal backgrounds. In short, fans of female sports tend to be interested in what happens with the athlete off the field more than the followers of male sports.
• Whether the athlete is a role model and has an ethical behavior- Do they inspire younger generations? Is their behavior on and off the field something worth mimicking?
• The athlete’s relationship effort – An athlete’s positive attitude when interacting with fans, sponsors and media. Athletes who invite their fan base into their lives through the use of social media, have a much higher visibility than those who don’t.

Capitalizing on an athlete’s brand components can be beneficial for both the athlete and the sponsoring brands.  Each athlete is unique, with different qualities and characteristics, each of which can be successfully utilized in developing the athlete’s personal marketing plan.

Real-Life Examples (5-minute discussion) There are numerous athletes who have managed to fully capitalize their potentials, good looks and what-not from Serena Williams to Maria Sharapova. There are also those who do not choose the conventional way and one of them is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Ronda Rousey. Ronda became an Olympic bronze medalist before deciding that her future lies in the world of mixed martial arts and joined Strikeforce. When the company was acquired by UFC, Rousey competed in the first women’s fight of UFC. Rousey and MMA are nowadays practically synonymous as she became the only woman to have successfully defended her title 6 times. In 2018, she was inducted into the UFC hall of fame. Unlike most athletes who slip into anonymity after retiring, Rousey joined the WWE and became the Women’s champion. She has also starred in several films since 2015 such as Furious 7, Mile 22, the Expendables 3 and Entourage, including her own documentary in 2019. Ronda destroys prejudices and crushes stereotypes. She is not the smiling face of your TV or the cute girl next door. She is “the baddest woman on the planet”.

Evaluating the athletic brand and its strength

The term “brand” has been used through the years with different meanings attached to it. From initially being used by cattle ranchers to describe the process of using branding irons to mark their animals with their “brand”, to using “brand” as the name given to a product or service from a specific source. Today, we also use the term “personal brand” as we consider every person to have their own set of unique characteristics. Everything you say and do reflects your own independent brand. Athletes have a personal brand, which is more recognizable than that of an average person because of the fame and attention that usually comes from competing in professional sports.

The personal sports brand is an intangible asset with commercial value.  The commercial value lies with the athlete; it is the sports-person’s own personal goodwill.  Personal goodwill in identity is the force that attracts one to a famous individual and gives the individual commercial value because of their fame.  As an intangible asset, the personal sports brand manifests itself by its economic properties, by granting rights and privileges to its owner and by generating income for its owner.

An athlete’s brand is derived from who they are, who they want to be and who people perceive them to be.  There is a series of questions that you can ask yourself in order to assess whether your brand has commercial value at all.  The following questions will help you realize if you are anywhere near the first step of the stardom ladder; they may even make you realize that you are actually climbing the stardom ladder and roughly pinpoint to your stardom ladder positioning.

• Do I have an audience of sports fans in my social media accounts? How many in each type of social media?  Am I tracking engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and comments, rather than just follower count? Take, for example, Simone Biles, who has successfully expanded her brand beyond gymnastics by engaging with fans through TikTok and Instagram. She shares behind-the-scenes glimpses into her life, workout routines, and even humorous trends, making her relatable and influential beyond gymnastics fans. This type of engagement strengthens her brand and keeps her relevant, even when she’s not competing.
• If I do have an audience of sports fans, am I in a position to influence their purchasing habits? Have I been approached by third parties to help promote their products or services to my fans?
• If I believe that I am in a position to influence the purchasing habits of my fans, how do I actually do that? How do I exert such an influence over my fans?  If I have ongoing promotion contracts with third parties for the promotion of their products or services to my fans, do I have any metrics that show the effect of my efforts on the actual sales of these products/services?

The answers to the above questions constitute a reality check of your “sports celebrity” status.  In any case, you will know approximately where you are, so that you can devise an appropriate strategy to create and monetize your brand.

Considering a brand’s importance to an athlete’s earning potential, the brand and the marketing strategy behind it should be frequently evaluated and possibly readapted. So how do you go about evaluating the strength of your athletic brand?

• Think about your competitive advantages. What makes you stand out from other professional athletes? Athletes can no longer rely solely on their talent to provide the all-important competitive edge; an athletic brand that stands out among the rest involves more of the athlete’s personality: their passions, interests and life outside of sports. Indeed, studies suggest that sports fans put more emphasis on character-focused stories about individual athletes, relating to their personal life and attributes, rather than on performance-focused stories. Authenticity is vital when it comes to building a strong brand; when the brand that you have built is a true reflection of who you are, your unique traits will define your brand and this is what will set you apart.
• Determine your audience. Do you know who your audience is and how to communicate with them? This is important so that your brand portrays the most marketable version of yourself. You have to know what your target audience likes, believes in and holds in high esteem, where to find them and how to get them to buy-in to what is being sold. Equally, you have to think about businesses reaching out to professional athletes to promote their products or services and how they go about deciding who to recruit for this purpose: a strong athletic brand can convince the business that it is “that” particular athlete that they need to hire.
• Consider the public’s perception of you as a person and as an athlete; this is your brand’s core. The fans’ decision to invest in an athletic brand, whether it is to purchase memorabilia of a specific athlete, watch a game on TV or buy tickets to the game, rests on this perception. In turn, this perception is based on an athlete’s sport performance, as well as character in real life. Take Ronda Rousey, who was labelled as the “baddest woman on the planet”. This portrayal of her being tough and aggressive sums up perfectly the public perception during her UFC and WWE careers.
• Assess your income. What are your current commercial earnings, if any? A good indicator of your brand’s strength is its financial value, that is, how much income you can yield from utilizing your brand. It is also worth considering the effect that your brand has on consumers’ buying decisions. Naomi Osaka surpassed every male and female tennis athlete in terms of earnings in both 2020 and 2021 with the exception of Roger Federer. In 2021, Osaka earned $ 57.3 million dollars.

The bottom line is that a strong brand is the foundation of whatever you undertake in your post sports career, essentially bringing with it opportunities; for this reason, it is imperative that you actively take care of it, evaluate it regularly and it will stand out on its own.

Action Steps – Exercise 1 (30 minutes):

Have athletes answer the following questions in writing to assess whether they have a brand with commercial value; give them about 15 minutes to complete the assignment and then have them read out their answers.  Continue with an open discussion.

• Do I have an audience of sports fans in my social media accounts? How many in each type of social media?
• If I do have an audience of sports fans, am I in a position to influence their purchasing habits? Have I been approached by third parties to help promote their products or services to my fans?
• If I believe that I am in a position to influence the purchasing habits of my fans, how do I actually do that? How do I exert such an influence over my fans?  If I have ongoing promotion contracts with third parties for the promotion of their products or services to my fans, do I have any metrics that show the effect of my efforts on the actual sales of these products/services?

Building the athlete’s name, image and likeness

A personal sports brand can be built in such a way that it transforms an athlete into a local, national, or global signature brand, which can be leveraged to sell, endorsed and make a profit. Athletes can build and capitalize on their brand by creating proper personal marketing strategies, with well-defined branding activities which are in line with their life plan. Strategic building of the athlete’s personal brand is important because it must be clear which values they bring to the marketplace in order to stand out from the rest of the crowd.

As mentioned above there are three components of an athlete’s brand image:

• Athletic performance
• Attractive personality
• Marketable lifestyle

The above components influence consumer brand equity formation and as already discussed, each of these components consists of several sub-components which must be thoroughly analyzed, before proceeding to create your sports brand strategy.

An athlete’s brand strategy determines how, what, where, when, and to whom she communicates her brand message. Today, this includes a mix of traditional PR, social media engagement, digital content creation (YouTube, TikTok, podcasting), and strategic collaborations with brands or businesses.  How the athlete communicates visually and verbally is part of their brand strategy. A successful branding strategy encompasses all of the following elements:

• Identify your Audience/Followers – Athletes need to have an idea of who their fans are and they need to identify what their audience wants from them as athletes and as brands.
• Create a Niche – Athletes can do that by defining who they are and what their mission is, in addition to sports or through sports, both on and off the field. They should choose their target market, audience and fans, identify what their audience wants/needs from them and figure out how they can fulfill their audience’s needs.  The target market is the group of individuals who you are seeking to sell something, influence, direct, and so on. There are two broad ways of approaching this. You either create a brand based on what kind of people you want to attract, or you create a brand and then try to attract people to you. In the first case you meet demand and expectations, in the second you try to create it for yourself.
• Create a story behind the Brand – What is the athletes’ style and what is their behavior on and off court? How do athletes participate in the community and what communication style and methods do they use? Where do they come from, what were their struggles so far and how did they overcome these struggles? These are all elements of the athletes’ personal story. Some athletes have really powerful and inspiring stories. Your backstory may also help define not only your brand but also the type of products you are trying to promote, or for that matter, create. People always love stories about overcoming challenges, making it as the underdog, recovering from falls and losses etc.
• Create a clear Communications Strategy both online and offline as follows:
  • Online strategy

Athletes should create a dynamic online presence by leveraging a mix of:
✅ Personal Website (for direct fan engagement & e-commerce)
✅ Social Media (Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn)
✅ Web Broadcasting & Live Streaming (Twitch, Instagram Live, TikTok Live)
✅ Direct-to-Fan Platforms (Patreon, Cameo, Substack, NFT marketplaces)
✅ Engaging fans with exclusive behind-the-scenes content, Q&As, and giveaways

• Offline strategy: Athletes should promote themselves offline through:
  • Appearing in charity or other events, using philanthropy or common good causes. In-person interaction will create a much stronger, personal connection with fans.
  • Personal Social Responsibility – Giving back to the community and associating themselves with a cause is vital to the athlete’s maturity and personal growth.

There is no doubt that you can choose to cultivate your brand towards whatever direction you feel suits you the most and will benefit you the most.

Real-Life Example (5-minute discussion) A perfect example of an athlete who realized her brand potential from a young age is Venus Williams. She was the first African American to become number 1 back in 2002 and along with her sister Serena, redefined and elevated female tennis. Williams has managed to thrive financially on and off the pitch and probably makes more money off the court than when competing, especially nowadays. At the age of 15, Venus signed a five-year contract worth $12 million with Reebok. Once that deal expired in 2000, she signed a new contract with the company for a $40 million, making it one of the most lucrative endorsements deals ever for a female athlete. In addition, Venus has also had endorsement deals with Ralph Lauren, Kraft, Wilson’s Leather, and Electronic Arts, among others. But Venus’ financial pursuits went far beyond endorsements and sponsorships which are ultimately related and dependent upon tennis. In 2009, Venus and her sister became shareholders of the Miami Dolphins, another first for African-American women, which is today one of the most valuable teams in the world. In 2011, she also teamed up with Jamba Juice. Also, Williams has her own interior business called “V Starr Interiors” in addition to her clothing line “Eleven by Venus” which she wears on the pitch. She has 2.5 million followers on Facebook, 2 million on Instagram, 1.7 million on Twitter. It is estimated that 90% of Americans would recognise her. Venus Williams has a degree in fashion design, she is a certified interior decorator and has recently received a degree in Business administration. What do you think about Venus’ success?

Creating the athlete’s personal marketing plan

Creating, establishing and maintaining an athlete’s brand is not as simple as it may sound. Of course, marketing experts will always be there to assist you with building your brand, but, unfortunately, creating a strong brand requires more than just ‘throwing money’ at the experts. As a result, we strongly recommend to every athlete to take some time, together with an advisor and build their marketing plan, or at least understand the basic parameters of the plan that was built for them by the ‘experts’. Before jumping on what the parameters of this plan should be, it’s important to acknowledge that having such a plan is highly important. Believe it or not, in the world of marketing everything is classified as a ‘product’, not in the literal sense but rather in the sense of being able to take something, and through the right promotion strategy make it more valuable.

Why do we need a marketing plan?

As an athlete, of course, your first and most important worry should be to always give your best in the field, whatever sport it is you’re participating in. If you’re doing that, you will most likely attract some attention and you need to be ready to handle that attention.  A well-structured marketing plan helps athletes position themselves uniquely, capitalize on their growing reputation, and create sustainable opportunities beyond their sports career. The plan should evolve with their success and adapt to digital and real-world trends. Truth is, if you’re a bad player, a marketing plan won’t do much but on the contrary, if you’re a player who’s putting in the effort and gives their best, a marketing plan will amplify your success and push you the extra mile that you need to reach your career goals.

To put things into perspective, let’s return to former UFC superstar Ronda Rousey and her nickname ‘The Baddest Woman on the Planet’. Rousey was dubbed ‘The Baddest Woman on the Planet’ during her peak years in the UFC by the media.  It was obvious that the nickname differentiated her from other female athletes and gave her a unique aura, usually reserved for male athletes. When she left UFC and joined the WWE, the marketing team of the sports entertainment company made full use of her iconic nickname. In this case, the point is that Ronda Rousey through the right marketing plan, was able to take advantage of a nickname that was given to her by others and positioned herself as the most famous female fighter of all time.

Moving on, having the right marketing plan can help you build your brand both inside and outside the field; a brand that not only emphasizes your performance in the field, but also promotes your individuality, your personal life and how these two make a great athlete and a figure that people wish to follow. Building such a brand makes an athlete more likeable to the public and consequently elevates their ‘influence’ over society. Now, why is this so valuable? Simply put, endorsements.  Large companies are willing to invest significant amounts of money in athletes with strong brands for endorsement deals. To put things into perspective, in 2024, the top 100 athletes earned approximately $1.4 billion from endorsements, illustrating the immense size of the endorsement market and how seriously large companies approach their marketing strategies. However, it’s important to note that no female athletes were included in the top 100 highest-paid athletes in 2024. The highest-earning female athlete, Coco Gauff, earned $30.4 million in endorsements, which is still far below the figures of their male counterparts. If you want even a small cut of the endorsement market, you really need to consider your marketing plan and how this plan will position you as an influencer amongst the public.

When do we develop our plan, what goals do we want to achieve through our plan?

As mentioned earlier; to have a plan, you need to have a ‘product’ and in this case, our ‘product’ is an athlete who performs well, constantly improves and has attracted some sort of attention by the media and the public. Unfortunately, athletes are not like any other product because they cannot be branded out of thin air. There must be substance in every athlete and that substance is first created by the athlete’s performance in the field. Brand development should start early, even before an athlete reaches peak performance. Social media presence, media training, and fan engagement should be built over time, so when peak career moments happen, the athlete is already positioned to maximize their brand’s impact.  Furthermore, it’s important to start thinking about your marketing plan at the early stages of your career so that you can implement parts of it as you improve and progress. The key timing which your marketing plan kicks in is the point where you start attracting more media attention. During that time, you’re given an ‘assist’ by the media and it’s up to you to utilize it correctly and position yourself to what you want to become.

Any marketing plan has to be at least assessed by marketing experts. As an athlete, you’re not in a position to draw the entire plan by yourself, but you are required to have an idea of what you want that plan to be and what its goals are. Therefore, your job as an athlete is not as much to create the plan but rather to assess your current situation and list the goals that you wish to achieve through a marketing plan. Sit down with a marketing advisor and lay out what you wish to achieve and what kind of brand you wish to build, and they will try to give you the means to achieve your goals.

Adapting the athlete’s marketing strategy according to the different life/work phases

The brand value of an athlete can be built to last a lifetime. When forming an athlete’s marketing strategy, the different life/work phases of the athlete should be taken into account. If the marketing plan is adjusted to, and caters for, the athlete’s evolving life/work phases it makes it easier to commercialize the athlete’s brand and add new revenue streams.

Like every other person who enjoys fame, each phase of an athlete’s life and career has different characteristics that appeal to different types of audiences with varying purchasing habits.

• Younger athletes up to 25 appeal to younger audiences. They are seen as free, young, single, fearless, with a drive to succeed, hungry for life, wanting to make their dream happen. They should leverage social media heavily, engaging Gen Z audiences through TikTok, Instagram, and Twitch.
• Athletes in their middle 20s to early 30s are perceived as young, successful, dynamic, benevolent, wanting to make a difference in the world.
• Then we have athletes in their middle to late 30s. They are seen as more settled and mature, successful both professionally and family wise, perhaps they have children. They are role models, their benevolence starts turning into action by supporting foundations, causes, etc. They become life coaches for younger athletes and usually they are getting ready to retire from field play. Their appeal expands to more mature audiences as well.
• During their 40s athletes have normally transitioned from field play to other businesses. They are considered versatile, adaptable, having a growing family, they could be new entrepreneurs. Giving back to society becomes a priority for them. Their appeal captures a variety of audiences of different ages, both young and mature.
• In their 50s retired athletes have already built businesses, they are business networkers, care about youngsters in sport, pursue philanthropy and they are health and fitness conscious. Their appeal shifts to generally more mature audiences and to the business world as well.
• And finally, in their 60s + they are considered to be acknowledged businesswomen, mature family persons, more laid back, they enjoy the pleasures of life, and they have more time to pursue hobbies. They are established philanthropists, respected and admired by most. Their appeal becomes all-encompassing with a variety of mature audiences.

It is very important for athletes to know at which phase they are positioned at all times, which will signify the type of audience they appeal to so that they can align themselves with their audience’s expectations and interests.  Obviously, athletes have a different appeal and a different audience at each stage of their life and a carefully crafted marketing strategy can actually keep athletes in the spotlight during all of their life/work phases.

Action Steps – Exercise 2 (10 minutes): 

For each life/work phase listed above, the athletes should define two types of products and/or services they could possibly promote to their fan base, and justify their selection on the basis of the characteristics of the particular life/work phase.

Social media strategies for promoting the athlete’s brand

A large part of the athlete’s personal marketing strategy can be implemented successfully through the use of social media. Social media are communication and socializing tools that we use in our everyday lives. As of 2023, the number of social media users worldwide has reached approximately 4.9 billion, marking a 3.2% increase from the previous year. Companies and individuals use social media to promote their brand, products and services. Athletes currently use social media quite heavily in order to market themselves and communicate with their fans, sponsors and potential sponsors.

Platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels allow athletes to showcase their personalities in authentic and engaging ways. Athletes like Simone Biles have built massive followings by sharing behind-the-scenes moments, training clips, and personal milestones—making them more relatable to fans and attractive to sponsors.

Social media is a powerful tool in implementing an athlete’s overall personal branding and marketing strategy and below we present some useful social media strategies which will guide athletes in building and promoting their personal brand successfully through social media. Finally, research suggests that fans of female sports engage with relevant content more on social and digital media rather than traditional media (e.g., TV).

Define the goals which you wish to achieve through social media. Through social media you will be able to develop a specific public image and tell your personal story, increase your fanbase and ultimately get sponsorships and endorsements.  By defining your goals, you are able to design your strategy towards achieving them.

Determine which is your audience. You have to decide which is the demographic of the audience you wish to reach. In order to do that, you have to know to which target group you are most appealing to and will most likely connect with you and become followers in the various social media outlets where you have presence.

Choose the right social media outlets. Depending on the target audience you want to reach, you have to choose the most suitable social media outlets through which you will do that. For example, if your target audience consists of teenagers, then Instagram and TikTok are more fit-for-purpose platforms than Twitter or LinkedIn.

Decide on the content of your posts. You want to develop a certain public image and you want to express your beliefs and opinions through social media. Choose carefully the type of content that you will be sharing with your fans in order to achieve that.

Post original content. Your own text, pictures and videos are more likely to gain attention than sharing someone else’s content.

Keep your privacy, but always have in mind that fans want to feel like they are part of their idol’s personal life, so it is important to have content from you daily life. Such content must be carefully chosen so that it does not disrupt your or your loved ones’ private moments. You may also make fans feel like they are part of the game by providing them with a sneak peek of behind-the-scenes material of your athletic world.

Be careful with the content of your posts. Have in mind that once posted it cannot be undone! Everything posted online is there forever, even after it’s been deleted. Therefore, always be careful when expressing opinions, especially if they are politically related, controversial, or relevant to a matter that is considered of public interest.

Engage with your followers. Engaging with your audience through questions, discussions, comments, replies etc. can help you build a strong relationship with them, ensuring the loyalty of your followers towards your personal brand.  Due to a lack of traditional media attention, women do not have the luxury of people being as familiar with athlete’s names, faces and achievements. This implies that it is ever-important for women to engage with their followers by providing backstories, projecting their strong personalities and sharing stories to strengthen bonds.

Tag others on your posts. Engage your team, teammates, sponsors, national organizations, etc, by tagging them in your posts, thus broadening your reach through being visible to the tagged person’s/organization’s fan base as well.

Be consistent and post regularly. You want to build a relationship with your followers and being consistent in your posts will increase fan loyalty. It is important to understand that social media platforms use algorithms which decrease your posts views on people’s timelines if your posting frequency decreases. The more social you are, the more air time you get. In order to achieve that, the best thing to do is to create a content calendar through which you will define what and when you will post and stick to it.

Use AI to Support Your Social Media Strategy. Today, many athletes use AI tools to enhance and streamline their social media activities. Platforms like ChatGPT can help generate engaging post captions, brainstorm new content ideas, or create audience-specific messaging. Tools like Lumen5 allow for quick video creation from written content, and Canva’s AI functions assist in designing high-quality graphics that align with personal branding. Using AI smartly can save time, improve content consistency, and allow athletes to focus more energy on their sport while still growing their online presence.

Social media is one of the best platforms to build and promote your personal athletic brand nowadays; it is free, it is vast, and it has tremendous potential in connecting you with a global audience.  Especially for women, who do not get the same attention from mainstream media as men, social media is a great tool to try and reach fans directly.

Real-Life Example (5-minute discussion) Serena Williams was the highest paid female athlete for years until she was recently dethroned by Naomi Osaka.  Beside all business ventures, Serena Williams engages regularly with her fans through heavy usage of social media.  Her social media following consists of 6 million Facebook fans, 17.9 million Instagram and 10.8 million Twitter followers.  Last year alone, she posted about 135 times on Instagram alone and she has started 2025 with a bang. Serena Williams’ Super Bowl performance gained widespread attention on social media, with fans praising its cultural significance, while she shared behind-the-scenes footage, further engaging her audience. Even after her retirement, she continues to remain a prominent figure, showcasing her influence beyond the tennis court. She has repeatedly emphasized the importance of social media for her and has been using social media platforms for many reasons: to promote her products, to inspire and motivate, to send a message, and of course to show her fans when she relaxes and spends quality time with her daughter. What does this example tell us?

Can athletes stay off the grid in the age of social media?

There used to be a time when athletes were afraid of paparazzi exposing their private lives, but nowadays they seem all the more willing to do that themselves through Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms. There is, of course, a rational explanation for this—in most cases a financial incentive. Nonetheless, it seems virtually impossible in the 21st century to live without any social media presence. Like the rest of us, however, athletes are not immune to all the traps that come with going online.

The impact of social media has been under intense scrutiny for the past few years and for a good reason. Social media is full of anger and hate. Unhappiness, anxiety, depression, insomnia, low self-esteem and countless other negative emotions and conditions have a positive correlation with social media use. On the other hand, social media help people stay in touch with loved ones and offer the opportunity for instant communication. As far as athletes are concerned, both the pros and cons of social media are amplified since they are by nature of their profession in the public gaze. Put simply, athletes can become famous and enhance their brand through social media while at the same time, the wrong tweet can send their careers down the gutter. Some notorious examples: Rashard Mendenhall’s tweet on 9/11, Tyler Seguin’s homophobic comments, or perhaps college footballer Kris Boyd’s surreal halftime tweet expressing his intention to leave for another college team.

Nonetheless, social media are much more than socializing platforms for athletes; they are arguably part of their job description. In other words, social media is the means for cultivating and ultimately “controlling” your public image. Athletes can use social media for brand-building, telling their story, expanding their fanbase, keeping in touch with their fans, which in turn can help them connect with traditional media, raise awareness for something they care about—be that a social justice project or anything else— and of course make more money, as their public image and popularity determine to a great extent, sponsorships and/or endorsements. The benefits of social media are thus double-fold. Not only is it a platform through which athletes can promote products and services, but if they manage to run their accounts efficiently, then the value of their brand will also increase and they will reap the benefits in the real world.

At the same time, there are disconcerting reports coming out of locker rooms; of coaches being forced to give “social media breaks” to enable athletes to concentrate more, of locker rooms stricken with silence and athletes “socializing” using their fingertips instead of chatting with the teammate next to them, of increasing anxiety and unhappiness among professional athletes, and many more. Moreover, the magnitude of the effects is still largely unknown to us, with psychologists and sociologists warning that the impact on millennials will be much more profound than on Generation Z. Social media do not discriminate between the haves and the have-nots or the famous and the non-famous; they can alter your identity and injure your sense of self-worth notwithstanding who you are.

If the athlete decides—like many celebrities—to abstain from the online community, then they will avoid all the negative feelings and emotions that are part and parcel of social media. They will effectively, however, let go of the benefits as well, such as the opportunity to increase their online presence and revenues, establish a loyal fanbase, build brand awareness and so on. Furthermore, a successful brand can go a long way in creating opportunities beyond the world of sports, and also after the athletes’ retirement from sport.

The decision to be on social media and how to use it, remains with the athlete. There is a series of variables that an athlete should take into account when deciding if and to what extent they are going to be active on social media. For example, how to deal with the dangers, how to prevent addiction, how to deal with the inevitable negative comments and generally how to maintain a distance between them and the online community and ultimately manage to define their relationship to social media as a strictly professional one.

Action Steps – Exercise 3 (10 minutes)

What do you think about social media in relation to the sports industry, their importance to becoming and remaining relevant, as well as their negative side?

Industries that invest in female sports

Sports provide a worldwide platform for brands to engage with a huge fan base. Advertising in sports has been increasing exponentially through the years, taking many forms, with the most traditional being ground or team sponsorship. Athletes have also been historically helping brands build an emotional connection with consumers by acting as brand ambassadors. In the case of women, up until recently, female athletes were overlooked and investment in female athletes/ sports was meagre at best. In 2024, female athletes secured about 12% of the total sports sponsorships.

With millions of users accessing digital sports content every day, athletes using online platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat or Tik Tok can interact with them, establishing themselves as “influencers”. Brands on the other hand can create marketing strategies that take advantage of this new relationship between their brand ambassadors and their followers, by creating digital content suited to the various social platforms they use.

When creating their personal marketing strategy, athletes should be aware of the prevailing sports advertising trends as well as the top industries that invest in the sponsorship of athletes and more specifically, female athlete.  Knowing where the money is, can be quite beneficial for athletes so that they gear their efforts towards that direction.

There are a number of industries that invest big in brand ambassadors from the sports sector and we will briefly look into them below.

Sports provide a huge opportunity for the Beverage industry to launch marketing campaigns, as fans traditionally connect watching their favorite sport with enjoying their favorite drink. The two giants, Pepsi and Coca Cola, have been employing some of the biggest names in sports to promote their products. Alex Morgan, Laurie Hernandez, Kelley O’Hara and Amy Purdy are a few of the big names that are sponsored by Coca Cola. The European UEFA Women’s League is sponsored by Pepsi and Heineken among others. Energy drinks are also investing big with Red Bull employing numerous female athletes to promote its products such as Victoria Azarenka.

The link between the Auto industry and sports has always been strong. Sponsorships are one of the most common ways in which brands pursue marketing opportunities that create deep levels of engagement between their brand and consumers. For example, Audi has partnered with the Bayern Munich women’s team. Mercedes sponsors tennis player Li Na. Maria Sharapova is endorsed by Porsche.

The world’s big Sportswear brands have been using athletes as the center of their marketing campaigns for decades and many times two great rivals on the court or field are wearing clothing from rival clothing companies. Sportswear (and not only) brands such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, Lacoste and so on, sponsor hundreds if not thousands of athletes and sports clubs around the world. Sportwear brands and the sport industry are almost one and the same.

The Luxury Watchmakers have been leveraging the positive associations consumers have with famous athletes to build brand awareness and drive sales for years. Elegance and class characterize these products. Rolex has been sponsoring many top athletes such as tennis player Caroline Wozniacki for years. Tag Heuer and Hublot are also investing big in both female and male athlete to promote their products.

The list of companies seeking brand exposure through sports star ambassadors goes on and on, and more industries are following suit by utilizing sports stars to promote their brands.  This presents a lucrative opportunity for athletes, in terms of creating additional revenue streams and gaining large-scale visibility. Although the gender gap is huge, companies in an attempt to honor the CSR commitments but also to take advantage of the underutilized market of female sports, are increasingly shifting funds towards female athletes.

The rapid rise of women’s sports has led to increased sponsorship opportunities for female athletes. Brands are now recognizing the value of sponsoring female sports stars, with Nike, Adidas, and Puma signing major deals with athletes like Serena Williams, Alex Morgan, and Simone Biles. The growing influence of women’s sports, particularly with events like the FIFA Women’s World Cup and WNBA, has made them a key investment area for brands seeking to reach diverse and engaged audiences.

Sports professionals serving as charity ambassadors

The sports industry is no longer solely associated with exercising the human body; billions of people all around the world are inspired by sport and that inspiration can be used to promote a good cause.  Sports professionals have the platform and opportunity to be able to inspire, motivate, and use their celebrity status to make a difference in causes and issues that are important to them.

Donating to charity is definitely a good start. However, a sports professional can really have an impact by being genuinely and actively associated with a cause; the benefit of being aligned with a cause is far more important than any pay check that an athlete may donate.  On their part, charities want to be associated with sports professionals because of their broad reach and popularity; indeed, sports fans are more inclined to give to causes linked to their favorite players or teams.

Being a charity ambassador means being at the forefront of a particular charity campaign, and giving your time, energy and support to promote the cause and encourage others to get involved too.  Take Serena Williams for example. She is an iconic tennis player and equally strong with her charity work. Williams has received many awards for her off-the-pitch charity work including the Celebrity Role Model Award and the Young Heroes Award. Williams’ charity focuses on those affected by violence and ensuring access to education. Williams is a UNICEF ambassador; she became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2011.

All philanthropy is personal.  If you are committed to making a real change in the world, you will want to start by clarifying your aspirations and you should spend some time distilling your values and beliefs and creating your legacy.  A real legacy is built on what you are giving to the world; it focuses on how you make the world a better place.

So how should a sports professional go about becoming a successful charity ambassador?

• You have to first decide on your legacy: Who do you want to impact and what can you do that will have a positive impact now and after you are gone?
• Find a cause that aligns with your intended legacy and that you are passionate about: when you really respect and care about the cause, you are more likely to send across a powerful message.
• Do your research: make sure that the charity you plan to associate yourself with, is truly dedicated and your combined efforts can genuinely make a difference.
• Know your role: agree how you can best use your knowledge, influence, contacts and skills to help. It is important that you fully understand what you are promoting and how you should go about it.
• Stay in touch: a good ambassador should be in regular contact with the charity they represent. Check in on the work that has been done so far and discuss the next steps.
• Embody the cause: you need to consistently engage with your fans both online and offline, in a meaningful way to raise awareness.
• Use your influence to lobby behind the scenes: approach your connections that may be able to help. You can even motivate your team or your league to be involved, reaching out to a wider audience.

Undoubtedly, it takes a lot of dedication to successfully undertake the role of a charity ambassador, but the benefits it brings with it are definitely worth it.  Associating yourself with a cause does not simply benefit your personal brand; it adds purpose to it so that you stand for something more than just yourself.  Fans want more than a superficial connection with sports professionals; they look for an emotional connection, shaped by sharing similar beliefs or ideas, to a positive role model.  Being a charity ambassador is not just about personal success; it’s about making your mark.

The commercial use of the athlete’s brand

Personal sports brands are tradable commodities.  When athletes build their personal sports brand, they can utilize it strategically and turn it into a long-term brand that may withstand the test of time. Below, we list a few ways through which personal sports brands can be monetized:

Endorsements by athletes, as we saw above, are considered quite valuable for brands and they are sought at various stages during the life cycle of a product. The promotion of endorsement through the social media accounts of endorsing athletes provides a direct way for athletes  to publicly endorse products and share their enthusiasm with their fans, and it is considered a core part of an endorsement strategy nowadays.

Endorsement contracts usually have a definite timeframe, anywhere from one to five years with an option for renewal, within the timeframe that the athlete is active in her sport, and they may include one particular product or a range of specific products. The compensation can take many forms, from a fixed fee to a percentage of the sales of the endorsed products. Brands may provide bonuses for athletic achievement within the endorsement period.

Sponsorships are offered by sponsoring brands who support an athlete and hope that their appeal to the public will have a positive effect on the brand’s product sales. Sponsorships create a more involved contractual commitment for the athlete because of their long-term nature and because the sponsor requires certain actions from the athlete in return for the sponsorship fee paid to them. Sponsorships can create a good-size income stream for the athlete as a lot of companies from various industries are moving towards this direction to raise brand awareness and recognition. Athletes may be sponsored from various companies in different industries, simultaneously.

While endorsement is about the product, with the athlete utilized as a marketing tool, merchandising is more about the athlete behind the image and the sale of a range of products under that athlete’s name and image.

Merchandising often involves various parties while the athlete is at the core of the product’s marketing campaign; athletes are not usually responsible for the design or production of the goods. The athlete may or may not have overall strategic control depending on the agreement she has entered into. In a lot of cases, a company with experience in the field of, for example perfumes, can seek permission to use the celebrity’s name for a particular perfume thus making this a licensing deal.

Other uses

The image rights of an athlete may be commercially utilized by her club in a variety of ways, through appearances, use of her image on merchandise, etc. In these cases, the team enters into a separate contract with the player for the commercial use of her image. This is something that David Beckham had created and perfected in the soccer industry, by always asking for a separate compensation amount from soccer clubs for the commercial use of his image.  Also, an app or an electronic game may seek to feature a celebrity athlete’s likeness and the athlete can be compensated either through a flat fee or a licensing agreement based on the sales of the computer game.  Athletes can also receive royalties for films, documentaries, books, etc.

Multi-Platform NIL Monetization

In today’s digital landscape, athletes are monetizing their brands across multiple platforms simultaneously. In addition to traditional endorsement deals, revenue may come from YouTube AdSense, TikTok Creator Fund payouts, affiliate marketing partnerships, subscription-based content (like Patreon), and even blockchain-based assets such as NFTs. Building a brand that earns across diverse digital channels increases income potential and creates more financial resilience over time.

Assessing the current value of the athlete’s brand

As already mentioned, the athlete’s brand is an asset with commercial value.  An athlete’s brand can grow exponentially in value as the athlete develops and enhances her image. The financial valuation of the sports brand is a relatively new development. Measuring the value of the sports celebrity image provides both athletes and sports clubs with a framework for strategic management when it comes to licensing, business alliances, or joint ventures involving an athlete’s image rights. The personal sports brand valuation is substantially affected by the abilities and the expected performance of the athlete, and such valuation is carried out according to the expected future utilization of the athlete’s image rights.  In addition, athlete brand valuation has expanded beyond traditional commercial deals. Social media influence, engagement rates, and audience demographics play a key role in assessing brand value.

The preferred method of calculating the value of the sports celebrity image is based on predicting future earnings derived from commercializing the image and calculating their net present value.  This methodology is widely accepted by global auditors and tax authorities in many countries and it is sufficiently reliable for use in financial reporting.

Managing the athlete’s brand:  Reputational and commercial management

For athletes to stay in the spotlight and continue to grow their brand, a proper brand management strategy has to be in place. The brand management strategy controls two different aspects of an athlete’s brand: the personal or reputation aspect and the commercial or business aspect. The personal aspect deals with the issue of reputational risk and how athletes should be careful of their actions to preserve their good reputation.  The business/commercial aspect deals with the commercial use of the brand and its monetization.

Reputational Risk

An athlete’s sports brand, like all brands, is vulnerable to being dependent on such intangibles as people’s perceptions of them.  Closely linked to the commercial value of the celebrity image is the opinion of the community.  An athlete’s good name or reputation is the regard which the athlete enjoys within the community.  If the community does not approve the actions of an athlete, her reputation would be in a bad state.  If the athlete’s image fits in well with communal convictions, then, her reputation would be positive, and this would have a direct, positive effect on her commercial value.  The athlete is greatly dependent on a positive reputation and it is the athlete who is the origin, the foundation of the reputation.  A number of athletes have been known not to live up to the public’s expectations thus tarnishing their brand, sometimes overnight, and jeopardizing their earning power.

As succinctly put by Warren Buffet: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it”. While building their brand is essential, managing their personal reputation is equally important for athletes.  Athletes have to be mindful of what their social media activity says about their personal brand as a whole; their behavior online reflects who they are and what they stand for, so they should use their social media with care because productive activity can turn into destructive behavior.  The athletes’ response to their audience is also important; creating a two-way street, is key to nurturing a community of fans. It is not about the athlete’s audience listening to what the athlete has to say, it is about having a two-way conversation, a communication with the fans.

Today, reputation management is increasingly influenced by AI-powered social listening tools such as Meltwater, Brandwatch, and Sprout Social, which monitor public sentiment, flag potential PR crises, and analyze audience reactions in real-time.

Example: Naomi Osaka has leveraged digital reputation management by actively shaping her narrative, responding to criticism thoughtfully, and prioritizing mental health advocacy through her social platforms.

Athletes need to create a crisis management strategy, and they should have a reputation management plan in place for managing events that might trigger a reputational crisis; this includes handling their public behavior through various media outlets and handling online criticism and public anger, or malicious comments.

In today’s cancel culture era, where public missteps can lead to sponsorship losses, athletes must have crisis response teams that quickly address negative press and issue carefully crafted statements.

Example: When gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from the Olympic events citing mental health concerns, her transparent communication and advocacy efforts strengthened her brand, proving that authenticity in handling crises builds credibility.

Business/Commercial management

The commercial aspect of a sports image, deals with the continuous commercial utilization of the athlete’s brand through procurement of sponsorships, endorsements, ambassadorships, paid or pro-bono participation in various events etc.  When planning the business component of the athlete’s branding strategy, a special emphasis should be given to the athlete’s communication with the public which assures her spotlight positioning. The fickleness of the public is a major factor which should be taken into account since someone who is “in” today, may be “out” next week and it takes a lot of constant hard work to be and stay “in”.

Also, an athlete should be careful not to spread herself thin by taking on too many endorsement deals.  When an athlete is overexposed by working with a large number of product/company endorsements, her credibility may suffer.  People may feel that the celebrity will endorse anything to make more money.

Of course, it goes without saying that the athlete should be particularly choosy in picking out her endorsement products and services and she should stay away from any products prohibited by her contract or controversial products such as drugs, alcohol, tobacco and many more.

The successful commercialization of an athlete’s brand is heavily dependent on the athlete’s team of brand/marketing strategy advisors.  The brand/marketing strategy team supporting the athlete, plays an important role in developing and growing the athletes’ exposure, expanding their marketability, and directing them towards the most appropriate commercial opportunities.

Real-Life Example (5-minute discussion) A great example of the effects of reputational risk is what happened with Maria Sharapova. The Russian phenomenon has won five grand slams, was the highest paid female athlete for 11 years and was second in total earnings after Serena Williams, until she was banned for illegal substance abuse that she claimed she had been using for fending of diabetes—due to her family history. A lot of sponsors abandoned Sharapova after the incidence and saw her earnings which peaked in 2015, fall significantly in 2016. Despite the ban, sponsors continued to be lured by the tennis ace. She struck a multi-year deal with UBS shortly after her suspension ended, and Porsche, Nike, Evian, and Head hanged around. What this tells us, is that reputational damage can be bad news as it was for Tiger Woods and to a certain extent for Sharapova. However, it depends on the extent of the damage suffered and also the strength and nature of your brand. What does Sharapova’s case teach us?

Protecting the athlete’s brand

Image rights are the expression of a personality in the public domain.  The provision of image rights in law enables the definition, valuation, commercial exploitation and protection of image rights associated with a person.  The right of publicity, often called personality right, is the right of an individual to control the commercial use of their name, image, likeness (NIL), or other unequivocal aspects of one’s identity.  It is generally considered a property right as opposed to a personal right and as such, the validity of the right of publicity can survive the death of an individual.

Personality rights are generally considered to consist of two types of rights:

• The right of publicity, or to keep one’s name, image and likeness from being commercially exploited without the permission or contractual compensation of its owner, which is similar to a trademark.
• The right of privacy, or the right to be left alone and not have one’s personality represented publicly without permission.

In common law jurisdictions, publicity rights fall into the realm of the tort or passing off.  U.S. jurisprudence has substantially extended the right through the notion of natural rights and the idea that every individual should have a right to control how, if at all, their persona is commercialized by third parties with the intent of making a profit.

The Right of Publicity is to some extent recognized and protected in a few countries such as the United States, France or Germany, but there are many countries where there are no specific legal tools which define these rights or address the harm caused by the unlawful use of a person’s Image.

In order to protect their personal sports brand, it is important for athletes to identify their relevant trademarks and register them.  Such trademarks include a sports persona’s name as well as their likeness.  Once trademark rights are established in a name or likeness, the next step is to register these trademarks. In the United States these trademarks can be registered with the USPTO and such registration expands common law trademark rights to the entire United States.  In addition, domain names denoting in any way the particular athlete’s name or likeness should be secured early on in the athlete’s career so as to prohibit their unlawful use and possible harmful effects.

Protection of the athletes’ image rights from unlicensed use by others, adds to the commercial value of such image rights whereas lack of protection has the opposite effect.  Image rights are an asset of the sports personality with a potential commercial value.  Therefore, it is crucial today more than ever, that sports personalities protect their image from unlicensed use by others.  As the potential for sponsorships and endorsements grows, so do the opportunities for unauthorized use and profit by third parties.

Is top athletic performance a prerequisite for a strong athletic brand?

As already discussed, the main components of brand equity strength are athletic performance (which encompasses athletic expertise, competition style and sportsmanship), attractive appearance (which includes physical attractiveness, body fitness and personal style) and marketable lifestyle (which includes the athletes’ character style and credibility, their beliefs and convictions, their life story and their relationship with fans).

It is possible in theory to have a strong brand without being a top-notch athlete and there are cases of athletes building a strong brand – intentionally and not—in spite of their athletic performance such as Colin Kaepernick. As you probably remember, Kaepernick’s strong beliefs and protests against racial inequality and police brutality made him a much-talked about public figure in the United States and beyond.  His resulting fame, landed him the Nike advertising contract which turned him into an international symbol of activism. However, this should not be considered the norm, it is more of an exception actually.  As it stands right now, top athletic performance and a strong brand have a much stronger correlation.

We’re not, of course, suggesting that non-athletic activities cannot strengthen your brand, but that the chances of constructing a formidable brand without being one of the most talented and charismatic athletes are lower. Some of the strongest names in female sports are Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Lindsey Vonn, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe. Williams and Sharapova are celebrated as two of the best tennis players in the history of the sport and have both successfully built solid brands due to the on-field and off-field activities. Morgan and Rapinoe are two of the best football players in the world and lead the “assault” for equal pay but so is the rest of the US National Team. However, when people want to put a face to the cause, these two are the first that come to mind because they are already two of the strongest names on the team.

The same can be said of Naomi Osaka, a rising star in the world of tennis. In 2021, she dropped out of Roland Garros, citing mental health issues and started a debate about mental health and sports. Osaka is number 2 in the ATP ranking at the age of 23. In short, top-notch female athletes can strengthen their brand by championing causes or other off-field activities, but it is unlikely that they can strengthen their brand by relying exclusively on non-athletic causes and tactics. While it may be possible to stand out for non-athletic causes, the correlation between a strong brand and athletic performance is much stronger.

The new regime:  Using blockchain, NFTs and smart contracts to promote the athletic brand

 

With the evolution of Blockchain technology, NFTs and Smart Contracts, the sports image rights landscape is beginning to change.  Blockchain technology has revolutionized the way athletes can build, commercialize and protect their brand.  The ubiquity of digital technology has given rise to a stream of innovations and to new sources of growth within the sports industry.  Fan experience has been given a new dimension as it is now beginning to take place in both the physical and the digital worlds by connecting either physical sports locations or athletes to a virtual universe in real time.  The sports industry is rapidly integrating blockchain technology to create transparent contracts, secure athlete compensation, and prevent unauthorized use of NIL (Name, Image, Likeness).

1. Defining Blockchain, NFTs and Smart Contracts and an overview of how they can help grow the sports industry

To understand the new digital world that is beginning to become part of our lives, we need to become familiar with its terminology and tools.

Blockchain technology enables athletes to securely control and monetize their digital assets. It is a decentralized digital ledger that ensures transactions cannot be altered or removed, making it ideal for protecting Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rights.

Tokenization is the representation of an asset (like an athlete or sports tickets) on a token to allow them to be managed and exchanged using blockchain technology.

Tokens of a Blockchain are often issued during an Initial Coin Offering, which is a way of raising funds using cryptocurrencies.  Tokens are either created via a smart contract in an existing Blockchain or allocated in the first block of a new Blockchain.  The most noteworthy types of tokens are:

• Utility tokens, which represent future rights to a product or service; and
• Security tokens, which are the issuer’s debt or equity instruments

A Smart Contract is a computer code that automatically triggers events agreed between two parties.  Smart contracts make cryptocurrencies and tokens programmable.  Some Blockchains such as Ethereum, are considered more suitable for the use of smart contracts since they have been designed to cater for such contracts.

NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are unique tokens that give their holders immutable ownership rights to specific assets.  NFTs are minted from digital objects that represent both tangible and intangible items.  Each NFT has a unique digital signature and certifies that an asset is unique and not interchangeable for another.  The record of ownership of the NFT is stored and transferred on digital ledgers.  Ownership of the underlying asset may never leave the creator and the NFT represents a bundle of rights, either exclusive or shared with others, to access the asset and potentially exploit it for commercial purposes.

2. Intensifying Fan Engagement through Blockchain technology

Tech-enabled fan communities are vital in building or breaking a global sports brand.  Blockchain technology in the sports industry, is reimagining the fan experience to create innovative fan engagement opportunities and it offers a number of opportunities to engage an athlete’s fanbase through different types of fan engagement tokens.  In addition, athletes and brands can utilize virtual experiences to activate user engagement in the digital world.  Blockchain is currently widely used to incentivize fan interaction and create unique experiences.  It also allows athletes to crowdfund performances by utilizing income share agreements.  In a nutshell, Blockchain has created new revenue streams by allowing athletes to monetize fan engagement through tokenized loyalty reward schemes.  Fan Tokens have emerged as a powerful tool for strengthening fan engagement and monetization in sports.

Fans can interact with multiple platforms, clubs, and protocols while maintaining one verified user ‘fan identity’.  The introduction of a Blockchain-based identity makes it easier for athletes, teams and sponsors to communicate and network with fans.  Rewards and payouts for fans’ winnings will be distributed simultaneously since smart contracts can operate with real-time performance and transactions.

It can be safely said that the technology is enhancing levels of engagement and loyalty, bringing fans closer to athletes and teams than ever before.  Various platforms, such as bFAN, Fantastec and Fantoken, are Blockchain solutions which, through the use of their platforms, connect fans with their favorite athletes and teams, and reward fan engagement in a number of ways.

3. The use of NFTs and smart contracts in connection with sports image rights
   1. New options for investing in athletes’ image rights. Fractionalized NFT-based smart sports contracts

Several start-ups, through the use of Blockchain technology, are offering potential investors the opportunity to invest in the next generation of sports ‘stars’.  With fractionalized NFT contracts, potential investors can get a ‘piece’ of their favorite athlete since they can play an important role in financially supporting their future sports ‘stars’ whilst ensuring a sustainable investment opportunity for themselves as well.

SportyCo, for example, aspires to connect young promising athletes with investors, who will help them co-fund their career for a stake in their future revenues, either from sport or from the commercialization of their brand or both.  To do that, SportyCo issues the SPF token which, in essence, is a utility token holding rights to athletes’ future revenues via a smart contract.

Jetcoin is another platform that bridges the relationship between young athletes and would-be investors, who mainly consist of fans.  Built on the Ethereum Blockchain, Jetcoin provides the opportunity for talents to develop their image with the support of their fanbase.  Jetcoin secures a percentage from the young athletes’ contracts or from agencies and agents.  To raise funds, Jetcoin releases JET tokens to be purchased by fans wishing to benefit from the future financial successes of promising talents.  Jetcoin implements the young athlete’s career plans with its partners and allows fans to participate in a meaningful way.

1. Expanding opportunities in the commercialization of sports image rights.

For athletes, branding themselves online has become imperative to drive their success as professional sports ‘stars’.  Through their personal branding, athletes convince current and prospective sponsors and brands that they can benefit by using them as their brand ambassadors or promoters.  Blockchain technology, along with fractionalized NFT contracts, make it possible for athletes to obtain more than one brand or sponsor for the use of different aspects of their image. Athletes can license different aspects of their name, image and likeness, as tokenized assets for reproduction by fans, sponsors and brands.  The opportunities for commercializing the athletes’ brand through fractionalized NFTs are vast and hundreds of different types of NFTs can be minted; each carrying different types of economic rights or uses.  Through fractionalized NFTs, athletes can break down their economic rights to small, and, at the same time, affordable, particles which can be licensed to different people for profit.

In addition, with the use of NFTs and smart contracts, professional athletes can lend their name, image and likeness for profit in the digital space, in addition to the physical world.  For example, the digital space gives athletes the opportunity to mint different types of NFTs holding digital collectibles, digital trading cards and any other athlete-related digital tokenized assets.  Due to the fact that digital assets are purely imaginative and are based on creative imagination, the commercialization possibilities can be endless, and a multitude of new revenue streams can be created.  Moreover, royalty rights for an athlete’s image, name and likeness can now be cryptographically protected too.  Through NFTs, athletes can automatically receive royalty payments on branded merchandise or memorabilia each time an asset is sold.

4. The Future: Metaverse and more sports image rights monetization opportunities

Metaverse is creating new ways for athletes to engage with fans and monetize their brand. Already, some athletes are launching virtual training sessions, digital meet-and-greets, and NFT-based collectibles. These virtual experiences help expand an athlete’s reach beyond physical events and create new revenue opportunities.

With the emergence of the Metaverse, the marketing of rights holders and brands will be revolutionized, with no one currently being able to predict accurately what the Internet and Metaverse will look like in the future.  We are sure of one thing though:  the Metaverse will no doubt allow for creative uses of sports image rights which will disrupt existing business models!

Action Steps – Exercise 4 (20 minutes):

Answer the following quiz to see how much you took away from today’s class

• What is a sports celebrity brand?

1. The brand related to the athlete’s performance on the pitch
2. The brand that athletes create after their retirement from action
3. An off-the-pitch brand that can even exist in spite of athletic performance
4. The brand that athletes create when they star in a movie

• Which of the following are components of the athlete’s brand image?

1. Athletic performance
2. Attractive appearance
3. Marketable lifestyle
4. All of the above

• A vital first step to creating a successful branding strategy is to identify your followers and broader audience?

1. True
2. False

• A crisis management strategy is about handling the athlete’s public behavior/misbehavior through various media outlets and handling online criticism and public anger or malicious comments.

1. True
2. False

• One of the components of the athlete’s brand image (See Q2) is athletic performance. Which of the following are NOT part of that? Choose all that apply.

1. Body fitness
2. Competition style
3. Sportsmanship
4. Life story

• Sponsorships are offered by sponsoring brands who support a sports celebrity and hope that their appeal to the public will have a positive effect on the brand’s product sales.

1. True
2. False

• Endorsements are offered by famous brands to athletes as a token of gratitude when the athlete helps the brand to surpass a certain number and number of sales.

1. True
2. False

• Which are the two things under the control of a brand management strategy?

1. the performance/athletic aspect
2. the personal/reputation aspect
3. the commercial/business aspect
4. the emotional aspect

• The opinion that the public holds for an athlete does not affect their brand’s commercial value.

1. True
2. False

• Which are the most common protectable trademarks? Choose all that apply

1. Home town name
2. Jersey number
3. Name
4. Likeness

Answers:

1.       C	6. a
2.       D	7. b
3.       A	8. b, c
4.       A	9. b
5.       a,d	10.c, d

Lesson wrap-up

Today we have explored issues related to the athlete’s brand, its development and commercial usage. We stressed the importance of having an accurate picture of where athletes are in terms of their personal branding so that they can plan their branding activities accordingly.  Strengthening the athlete’s brand equity is important since it forms the basis of an athlete’s commercial value from a consumer’s point of view.  Carefully building a long-term plan, can help athletes maximize the benefits from the commercial use of their sports brand.  Taking steps to protect the athletic brand using legal means is also central to the athlete’s ability to maximize revenues that emanate from their brand.  Moreover, we discussed industries that invest in female athletes and sports and explored important questions in relation to social media and athletic performance.

At this point, we will wrap-up today’s lesson.  First, we will go over the learning objectives of this lesson and we want your feedback as to whether they have been achieved, and then we will address any questions you may have.  Please feel free to ask anything you’d like in relation to today’s lecture and we would love to hear how the concepts we discussed today relate to you and your greater life plan.