To learn more about INFLCR+ Local Exchange, email us at info@inflcr.com.
Teamworks announced the launch of the INFLCR+ Local Exchange today. This new software service will assist collegiate athletics departments in supporting their student-athletes as they pursue Name, Image, & Likeness (NIL) business opportunities.
With the INFLCR+ Local Exchange, institutions can customize and manage NIL reporting, while providing approved businesses, collectives, and individuals with a customized portal for communicating with student-athletes and fulfilling NIL transactions.
More than 210 NCAA DI institutions have entered into long-term software partnerships with INFLCR, a Teamworks company, choosing INFLCR’s industry-leading technology as a core resource for their student-athletes to build their brands and manage their NIL businesses.
Adding to INFLCR’s core platform for content delivery and brand building, the company’s INFLCR Verified software provides student-athletes access to compliance tools, NIL education, and more than thirty third-party marketplaces in the INFLCR Verified Exchange.
“Our customers – from administrators, to coaches, to student-athletes – are innovative and engaged, and played a key role in helping our product team design and build the INFLCR+ Local Exchange,” said INFLCR President Jim Cavale. “Our launch partners are so far ahead of the curve; I’m just humbled by the trust that they’ve placed in us and in the Local Exchange.”
Among these early adopters are Arizona, Boise State, DePaul, Florida, Oklahoma, St. John’s, Southern Miss, Syracuse and Texas A&M, who will all launch their customized INFLCR+ Local Exchange portals for any interested businesses and individuals to begin registering today.
NIL became a reality for NCAA athletics in July 2021. Student-athletes were suddenly able to profit off of their NIL, but also faced new reporting obligations in order to remain compliant with school regulations and, in many cases, state law. INFLCR Verified has eased the transition into the NIL era for more than 150 DI institutions, providing robust NIL compliance and education functionality, and processing reporting of more than 6,500 NIL transactions totaling over $10 million since July 1, 2021.
“INFLCR’s core product has been helping institutions and their student-athletes build their brands since I founded the company in 2017,” said Cavale. “The start of the NIL era in 2021 gave us the opportunity to add the INFLCR Verified product. And today, we add the INFLCR+ Local Exchange to our product suite, which brings us full circle in supporting our institutional partners and their student-athletes through just about every step of their NIL journey.”
HOW IT WORKS
INFLCR Verified partner institutions who choose to add the INFLCR+ Local Exchange to their accounts will have a customized NIL registration system that can live as an extension of their athletics website.
After a business, collective, or individual registers on the institution’s INFLCR+ Local Exchange, they can access a searchable database of INFLCR student-athletes from that institution, and filter student-athletes based on a variety of criteria. They can message the student-athlete directly in the application or request the student-athlete’s contact information (or their agent’s) to start a discussion about an NIL transaction. INFLCR and its partner institution will not be a party to these negotiations.
“We’re not an agency or marketplace that negotiates and facilitates deals for athletes in exchange for a fee,” Cavale notes. “We’re a technology company. Our partners subscribe to our software services so that their student-athletes have the cutting edge tools to build their brand and manage their own NIL businesses while remaining compliant with school regulations and state law.”
Key points for institutions utilizing the INFLCR+ Local Exchange:
Upon finalization of an NIL deal, the compliance disclosure, which can be customized based on institutional regulations or state legislation, will include a payment processing tool for the business to securely pay the student-athlete. All disclosure and payment data automatically reports to the institution’s existing INFLCR Verified Compliance Ledger, and any payments processed using this tool will be reported on a consolidated 1099 that lives in the student-athlete’s INFLCR app for more efficient tax reporting.
In order to avoid the inherent conflicts of interest that would arise from taking a cut of athlete transactions, INFLCR will not receive any transaction fees for activity originating on the INFLCR+ Local Exchange.
“The opportunity to have a one stop shop for Name, Image, Likeness activity and opportunities for Gator student-athletes is really important, it un-clutters some of that [NIL] space,” said Scott Stricklin, Athletic Director at the University of Florida. “The really unique thing about having a central source is they can go to one place, they can engage in the activity, and they can look for opportunities. It makes it more turnkey for our student-athletes as they navigate all the other responsibilities they have and still have an opportunity to take advantage of Name, Image, Likeness.”
“[Local Exchange] is great for our athletes and it’s great for the businesses and people in this area…to be able to interact with our athletes and find a place where they can be beneficial for both,” said Jim Boeheim, Syracuse Head Men’s Basketball Coach. “There is nothing better than this, this is optimal, and is one of the best ideas in a long time.”
“We always value being a first mover; innovative; proactive. Especially when it comes to positioning our program, our coaches, our student-athletes for success,” said Joe Castiglione, Director of Athletics for the University of Oklahoma. “This is exciting because now we have our own system that we can position our student-athletes for success.”
“[The INFLCR Local Exchange] provides us with the infrastructure to really allow us to better serve our student-athletes,” said Jeramiah Dickey, Director of Athletics for Boise State University. “To provide them with opportunities that maybe others don’t have right now and for us to be the connector and really help them navigate a space that is still in the infant stages of growth.”
“We’re so excited about the launch of this and it really is ours,” said Mike Cragg, Director of Athletics for St. John’s University. “It’s such a great one stop shop for so many different ways to give opportunity. To me that’s what NIL is about, it’s about opportunity for the student-athletes that are interested in it, entrepreneurial in spirit and using their Name, Image, and Likeness for their own benefit.”
“[Local Exchange] just helps the enterprise of our entire athletic program to support our student-athletes at the highest level…but also we can tell our story to the broader community to say, ‘if you want to do a Name, Image, Likeness arrangement this is a database that you can go and you can connect directly to student-athletes’,” said Texas A&M Director of Athletics, Ross Bjork. “We just compliment INFLCR on creating a great system and we’re happy to be a part of this launch.”
“It’s critical for this system to be catered to Southern Miss, catered to us and be set up in a way that feels like it’s centered around what we’re doing and how we’re functioning,” said Jeremy McClain, Director of Athletics for the University of Southern Mississippi. “I really think this benefits not just our student-athletes, it benefits our fans and our business owners out in the community who are looking to make that connection. Having this [Local Exchange] as a Southern Miss landing spot is very important to us.”
“The opportunity for DePaul to have its own exchange, something that we can fully automate and control, with our partners at INFLCR, is accomplishing a goal I set out on July 1 when this all started,” said DeWayne Peevy, Director of Athletics for DePaul University. “How do we connect some of our business providers, our sponsors, our community to our student-athletes? That’s what this opportunity gives for us, it gives our student-athletes the chance to reach out, it gives them the chance to build their own brand and platform, to be more attractive to vendors and sponsors or different brands and there’s some connection of a professional nature in all the different forms that will be very vital for the growth of our NIL program.”
“The University of Arizona is committed to providing our student-athletes with the best opportunities in this new Name, Image, and Likeness industry that we’re stepping into,” said Tommy Lloyd, Arizona Head Men’s Basketball Coach. “[INFLCR] is an amazing streamline system. It’s going to be really easy for businesses to interact with our student-athletes, the reporting system is first-class, there really is no opportunity for anything to slip between the cracks.”
To meet our launching partners and what INFLCR+ Local Exchange means to their institution, click here.
About INFLCR
INFLCR, a Teamworks company, is the leading content and compliance platform for elite athletic programs, educating and preparing staff and athletes for the NIL era, all powered by best-in-class content delivery via mobile app. INFLCR works with more than 3,500 collegiate and professional sports teams with a network of over 70,000 active athlete users.
With revolutionary new products like the Compliance Exchange, Storyteller Playbook, and administrator dashboard, INFLCR enhances the athlete experience with a comprehensive solution for responsible brand-building on social media, as well as a fully compliant path to external commercial activity from NIL. Visit www.inflcr.com for more information.
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