Brand Deals, Sponsorship & Business
NIL deal
Also called: name image and likeness deal, NIL
NIL stands for name, image and likeness. The term entered general use in 2021, when the NCAA dropped its ban on college athletes being paid for endorsements, and a market appeared almost overnight.
The structure has since spread past college sport. A NIL deal pays for the use of who somebody is rather than for a piece of content: the brand gets the right to use a name and a face across its own channels for a period, and posting is often the smaller part of it.