NFLPA Embraces Player-Driven Marketing with Renewal of opendorse Partnership

LINCOLN, Neb. and WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The NFL Players Association (NFLPA), via its licensing and marketing arm, NFL Players Inc., and opendorse, the leading athlete marketing platform that helps the biggest brands in sports share content on social, today announced the renewal of their five-year partnership. The agreement will extend opendorse as the social media activation partner for NFL players.

The partnership follows NFL Players Inc.'s launch of REP Worldwide, the athlete brand management and sports licensing business. Further cementing its commitment to help NFL players and other athletes build their personal brands, the NFLPA will be leveraging opendorse's instantaneous distribution platform for athletes to approve and share content from their brand partners.

"This partnership speaks to the NFLPA's commitment to its players," said New England Patriots Tight End Rob Gronkowski. "There's a massive opportunity for us as players to build valuable personal brands, but we have a limited timeframe to do it. The opendorse partnership is a commitment to helping every NFL player maximize the value of our brands on social."

Since partnering in 2013, the NFLPA and opendorse have helped nearly one thousand NFL players connect with hundreds of brands to share social media campaigns, reaching more than one billion fans worldwide.

A look at the partnership results since 2013:

• 850+ NFL players have used opendorse to share branded content on social
• 3,500+ NFL player-driven social media campaigns have been executed
• 200+ brands have used opendorse to connect with NFL players
• 1 billion+ NFL fans have been reached on social media

"We're excited to continue to help NFL players build their brands with opendorse," said NFL Players Inc. President Ahmad Nassar. "Our players and business partners have embraced opendorse to share content on social media. As player-driven marketing becomes prevalent, we have no doubt that opendorse will continue to be extremely valuable to the NFLPA, the players, and our partners."

"Ahmad Nassar and I sat down in 2013 to discuss the value of social media and its impact on the future of NFL player marketing," said opendorse CEO Blake Lawrence. "I felt inspired, knowing that opendorse's vision to help athletes and brands connect on social was shared by the biggest association in sports. I'm proud that five years later, we're living that vision and helping more than 2,500 athletes worldwide provide 1,500 brands with access to sports fans."

About opendorse
opendorse is an athlete marketing platform that helps the biggest brands in sports share content on social. Founded by two former major college athletes, opendorse was built seeking to make it easy for athletes and brands to work together to engage their fans. Today, more than 2,500 athletes rely on opendorse to access content to share with their 850mm social media followers.
More than 1,500 brands partner with opendorse to send content to athletes to share through their social media channels. Top advertisers including Coca-Cola, Head & Shoulders and Courtyard Marriott, and properties including the NFLPA, PGA Tour, New Jersey Devils, Clemson Athletics and Nebraska Athletics all use opendorse to engage athletes and their audience.

About National Football League Players Association
The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) is the union for professional football players in the National Football League. Established in 1956, the NFLPA has a long history of assuring proper recognition and representation of players' interests. The NFLPA has shown that it will do whatever is necessary to assure that the rights of players are protected—including ceasing to be a union, if necessary, as it did in 1989. In 1993, the NFLPA again was officially recognized as the union representing the players, and negotiated a landmark Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL. The current CBA will govern the sport through 2020.

About NFL Players Inc.
NFL Players Inc., the licensing and marketing arm of the NFLPA, connects businesses to the power of NFL players. NFL Players Inc. creates customized business solutions for partners, through licensing, marketing strategy and player activations. At $1.6 billion in retail sales in 2016, the NFLPA ranks as one of the 40 largest global licensors, and has earned industry awards as a best-in-class licensing and player-marketing business. For more information, please visit nflpa.com/players.

Media Contacts:

opendorse
Melanie Wallner
212-488-1462
[email protected]

NFLPA
Jenna Sobray
202-572-7458
[email protected]

SOURCE opendorse