Kentucky-based Collective, The 15 Club, Partners with Athlete Licensing Company to Accelerate its NIL Program
The 15 Club will Utilize ALC’s Intellectual Property Rights Expertise to Enhance Athletes’ Opportunities
Nashville, TN [October 3, 2023] — Athlete Licensing Company (ALC), a tech-enabled third party administrator of name, image and likeness (NIL) and intellectual property (IP) rights, today announced its partnership with The 15 Club, an NIL collective that empowers University of Kentucky student-athletes to maximize NIL opportunities.
Two years ago, collegiate athletes were granted the ability to financially benefit from their NIL rights, which is a form of intellectual property.
“Today, student-athletes are in a unique position – one that offers them many opportunities, but also brings challenges,” says Ryan Miller, CEO of Athlete Advantage, the organization that founded and manages The 15 Club. “Our goal is to help student-athletes leverage their NIL rights as a way to improve their lives. ALC’s student payment app and IP rights management expertise allow our student-athletes to fully benefit from their NIL rights in a compliant and fluid way without causing an undue burden on their time.”
The 15 Club will integrate ALC’s digital platform to automate the payments from the collective for NIL rights and transactions to the athletes through the ALC student app. The ALC platform and app are agnostic, in that they will work with collectives, merchandisers, marketplaces and third-parties to enhance the athlete’s funnel of opportunities while holding transaction costs down and even allocating for taxes. The ALC platform puts the athlete at the center and seamlessly connects them to universities, collectives, marketplaces, donors and brands. The platform includes automated compliance disclosures, and a student app, which allows student-athletes to accept, track, show proof of work, receive payment and report their NIL deals, as well as receive a royalty statement showing transactions and a single 1099 tax form. Additionally, the app includes royalty-splitting to pay agents, brands and schools for their co-branded merchandise or content as well as allocate and save for taxes.
The team behind ALC has in-depth experience in IP rights administration, NCAA and NIL law, University fundraising, accounting, finance and technology. The development of ALC’s software suite was based on 25+ years of music-industry IP rights and royalty tracking know-how. ALC also provides a wide range of consulting services, from strategic planning to IP exploitation, litigation and protection.
“The 15 Club was founded to help Kentucky student-athletes thrive by fully optimizing their NIL opportunities,” says Bryan Risner, ALC’s Vice President of Strategic Partnerships. “We’re eager to help them develop diversified resources for their student-athletes to fully leverage their NIL rights.”
About Athlete Licensing Company
Athlete Licensing Company (ALC) is a tech-enabled NIL/IP rights management company that facilitates third-party administration for student-athletes, universities, collectives, brands, marketplaces and agents. The company puts student-athletes at the center of the ecosystem by providing an app enabling them to optimize and manage their NIL and IP rights opportunities. The company also offers software-as-a-service products that allow for efficient, transparent sponsorship facilitation, payment enablement, reporting and compliance oversight. ALC boasts a wealth of experience in intellectual property management, NCAA/NIL state and school compliance, fundraising, legal, accounting and tax guidance. This expertise allows ALC to provide high-level, professional service to clients as they work to build strong, sustainable NIL programs. For more information, visit www.athlete-licensing.com.
About The 15 Club
The 15 Club was created to help University of Kentucky student-athletes capitalize on their NIL rights. The organization provides opportunities for all Kentucky fans to contribute and engage with the athletes they passionately support through various NIL activities, merchandise and licensing opportunities. For more information, visit https://kentucky15.com.
