DIY vs Agent

New Jersey NJSIAA amended it’s bylaws to allow high school student athletes to profit from their Name, Image & Likeness which went into effect on 1/1/22. I had heard rumors about this a few months before that and had gotten as educated as I could on the subject.

Elliot was already fortunate enough to be in contact with a few agents & agencies. This had been initial contacts in preparation for him possible be eligible for an NBA agent a few years out. Those same agents now saw what we saw, a chance to get to know the agent (them us) and start creating a relationship as soon as NIL was allowed.

This was, again, uncharted territory as no High School students had signed Marketing Agreements before. We did our research, listen to proposals, sat down as a family and discussed and Elliot ultimately decided to sign with Drew Gross and RocNation. He is the first ever high school athlete who signed a NIL marketing agreement with them. As Elliot is concentrating on basketball I am the one who mainly deals with all the NIL information until he ‘has’ to be involved.

Obviously, having an agent takes a lot of stress off of you and it also makes it easier as, hopefully, the agent has ways of securing deals for your child. This let me take a step back and now concentrate on the business side (start an LLC, open bank accounts etc etc)

When picking an agent:

* Make sure your child, and you, really like the agent
* Research the agent and see if he/she stands for the same values as your family does
* See who else the agent is representing
* Make sure the agent is giving you specifics on what he will do for your child

Ultimately, all you can do is go by your gut feeling and what makes sense to you (for us for example it made sense to have an agent in NYC as we live right here, it also made sense to have someone who had connections established in Sweden)

To be continued …..