Iona University Director of Athletics Matthew Glovaski announced a partnership with Opendorse to support its student-athletes in the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) area.  

Opendorse is one of the leading athlete marketplace and NIL technology companies. They support athletes throughout their lives through educating, assessing, planning, sharing, creating, measuring, tracking, disclosing, regulating, listing, browsing, booking and more, according to their website.  

Their NIL solutions help athletes and their supporters understand, build, protect and monetize their brand. They currently work with over 90,000 athletes, over 2,000 sports organizations and have over two billion athlete followers.  

”We are excited to begin our partnership with Opendorse,” said Glovaski according to ionagaels.com. “As we continually strive to best position our student-athletes in all aspects of their Iona experience, this relationship with a premier partner will provide comprehensive support in the NIL space.” 

Opendorse currently works in professional leagues such as the WNBPA, NHL, PGA Tour, US Figure Skating and with some of the leading colleges in the NCAA for sports such as the University of Oregon, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Texas at Austin and many others.    

The partnership with Opendorse will allow Iona athletics to launch the Gael NIL marketplace, where brands, fans and supporters can browse, contact and secure NIL opportunities, according to the ionagaels website.  

“Iona athletes are prepared to embrace NIL opportunities like never before,” said Opendorse CEO Blake Lawrence. “With access to the industry’s top-performing resources, Iona will empower its athletes to maximize their value and easily connect with supporters. We’re proud to support the Gaels in their pursuit of NIL success.” 

Opendorse will also support Iona Athletics through NIL education. Both in-person and virtual offerings will allow Opendorse to bring expertise to Iona student-athletes with the goal of maximising NIL potential while still remaining in-line with NCAA and New York State NIL guidelines and rules.  

In 2022, Opendorse announced the ‘NIL Book,’ which is designed to provide earnings expectations for college athletes, and which is only available to schools who are partners with the company. The book is also meant to try and help schools, athletes and leagues navigate the relatively new NIL landscape of college athletics.  

Jalen Ricks, a redshirt freshman, partnered with Supplement World through their Opendorse marketplace; his profile has an all-star rating, according to ‘The Sunflower’.  

“They ask you to do a deal, you accept it, and you get paid for doing it, so it’s pretty easy that way,” Ricks said.  

‘The Sunflower’ article also reiterated that in the NIL area, athletes must actually do something to get paid and cannot get paid purely on performance alone.