Wisconsin athletics announces official NIL platform for student-athletes

The Wisconsin athletic department announced Thursday the launch of “YouDub Marketplace”, a dedicated platform to promote NIL (name, image and likeness) opportunities for student-athletes.  

The site will be exclusive to University of Wisconsin-Madison, serving as its official NIL hub.

YouDub Marketplace, a product of Opendorse, aims to offer Badger fans and interested business partners a platform to access student-athlete profiles and negotiate potential NIL opportunities. Wisconsin now debuts one of the first school-specific NIL marketplaces in the country, less than a year after the NCAA Board of Directors passed its monumental NIL policy.

The June ruling suspended NCAA name, image and likeness rules for all incoming and current student-athletes, allowing students themselves to earn a profit off of their image.

“This is an exciting step in our evolving efforts to provide the highest level of support to our student-athletes when it comes to their NIL opportunities,” UW Director of Athletics Chris McIntosh said. “This new marketplace makes it easy for our fans and our business community to channel that support directly to the student-athletes. Most importantly, it gives our student-athletes another powerful tool as they continue to elevate themselves in the NIL space.”

This service will also provide student-athletes a simplified method to review business opportunities, engage with potential partners and receive compensation — all on the same platform.

Current and past student-athletes will have opportunities to strengthen their NIL, along with the 75,000 other athletes using the Opendorse platform.

"Wisconsin has built an award-winning NIL program that stands among the nation's best," said Opendorse CEO Blake Lawrence. "Today's launch of the YouDub Marketplace will take that student-athlete support to the next level. Starting now, Wisconsin fans can find and support every Badger using the top NIL technology in college sports."

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