2023-12-21T13:47:12Z
- Athlete storytelling is booming, from docuseries to podcasts to content creation on social media.
- Agents and managers work with brands, media, and production companies to secure these opportunities.
- Here are the top 32 agents and managers helping athletes build media and content careers.
Athlete storytelling took the media world by storm in 2023. From docuseries to podcasts to day-in-the-life videos on social media, fans have come to love and demand more access to their favorite sports players off the field. And that's creating a goldmine of opportunities.
As NFL player Travis Kelce has gained recognition through his Super Bowl appearances, behind the scenes his managers Aaron and André Eanes coordinated other endeavors that helped him reach new levels of stardom, including his "New Heights" podcast and appearance hosting "Saturday Night Live." As his brand and fan base have grown, he's needed the help of high-powered Hollywood fixers to steer his career — one reason Kelce signed with the agency CAA this year, which now reps him for all his media endeavors off the field.
They're among the talent agencies and management firms creating pathways for athletes to break into media.
Business Insider put together its second annual list of managers and agents helping athletes from college to the pros navigate careers in media, content, and entertainment, including developing podcasts and sports documentaries, launching media companies, and building influencer businesses.
These projects are bringing in additional revenue streams for all athletes — but they can especially bolster the low salaries in women's sports. On average, female professional athletes derive about 18% of their annual income from their salary and the rest from paid partnerships, while their male counterparts earn about 63% of their income from salary, according to a study by Wasserman's women-focused division, The Collective.
Partnering with college athletes through name, image, and likeness deals, especially in women's sports, has also proven to be one of the strongest influencer-marketing strategies for brands, data shows.
"Every single brand, the first thing they ask us is, 'Which female athletes do you have?'" Michael Raymond, an NIL agent who founded Raymond Representation said.
More young athletes are being inspired by role models like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Sue Bird to pursue different opportunities such as founding their own media companies.
"We're starting to get the first generation of athletes that have grown up with the reality of their idols growing media companies," said Kyell Thomas, the managing director for entertainment and production at Octagon, "and looking at that as a logical step where it used to be an outlier within the business."
However, although networks and streamers continue to invest actively in producing sports-related programming, the bar for selling a concept is quickly rising, experts say. Copying the "Drive to Survive" model that's been so successful for Netflix and Formula One and contributed to a resurgence in sports documentaries isn't enough.
"The bar just gets higher and higher for what actually is going to get made moving forward," said Ryan Holcomb, head of content at Excel Sports Management.
BI reached out to Hollywood, sports, and NIL agencies to create a fresh list of the most innovative and influential sports agents and managers in the media world.
While several superstar managers and agents have helped the biggest stars in sports launch media business, from Rich Kleiman and Maverick Carter, we focused this list on agents and managers who are actively working with a range of athletes on content.
Here are 32 top agents and managers helping athletes build personal brands and careers off-the-field, listed alphabetically by company:
Aaron and André Eanes of A&A Management have navigated Travis Kelce’s rise to stardom
Aaron and André Eanes, cofounders
Twin brothers Aaron and André Eanes founded their sports media and marketing agency back in college and signed Travis Kelce about one year into the venture. Both Cleveland-area natives, André and Kelce became friends at the University of Cincinnati.
Since then, Kelce has risen to levels of media stardom few athletes reach. A&A fostered the launch and rise of Kelce's popular "New Heights" podcast with his brother Jason Kelce, scored national ad campaigns with Pfizer, DirecTV, and Experian, and finally got him to host "Saturday Night Live."
"I knew if Travis goes to 'SNL,' he's going to get 'SNL.' Because he's going to meet Lorne, Lorne's going to love him. And he's a comedy nerd, so he knows the history of 'SNL,'" Aaron said at a December Sportico event about a visit Kelce made to the show where he met Lorne Michaels before landing the hosting gig. "Producers called me the next day: 'Was he serious about wanting to host?' Like, 'yes, I've been saying this for three years!'"
The call arrived in February the morning after Kelce's Super Bowl victory, Aaron said, and he hosted the show on March 4.
Kelce isn't A&A's only client — the brothers have several younger athletes who they help capture content and land brand partnerships, like 21-year-old women's soccer player Kaila Novak's deal with Spotify. A&A is intentional about the steady long-term growth of its clients' personal brands, the company said, including helping athletes invest in companies and sports teams. Kelce and Ward have both invested in a Formula 1 team and tequila brand, as well as other companies.
"Generally, it starts internally. We think about every year where we see the person being, where we see his career being," Aaron said of the company's strategy with its clients. "Once we figure out that, then we just go to market and figure out what categories we want to attack, what opportunities we want to look for."
Relevant clients include: Travis Kelce (Kansas City Chiefs tight end with 5.2 million Instagram followers), Denzel Ward (Cleveland Browns cornerback with about 300,000 Instagram followers), Kaila Novak (women's soccer player with 1.5 million TikTok followers), Joe Haden (former NFL player with 725,000 Instagram followers)
Buchwald's James Crane and Scott Kaufman help athletes like Jay Cutler break into TV, film, unscripted content, and more
James Crane and Scott Kaufman, talent agents
Crane and Kaufman lead an eight-person team within the talent agency Buchwald that helps athletes — including former Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler and the WWE superstar "Big E" — break into TV, film, unscripted, and other pockets of media and entertainment.
Crane, a Los Angeles-based agent at Buchwald since 2019, helped Cutler score his latest broadcast-TV deal on the refreshed "Inside the NFL," which moved to The CW this fall. He previously helped Cutler launch the PodcastOne podcast "Uncut with Jay Cutler," which ran for about a year.
With Ettore Ewen, also known as Big E, Crane and Kaufman helped the former college football defensive lineman secure a branded-content deal with Fox Sports' "Big Noon Kickoff" that included touring the locker rooms of major colleges and universities.
Kaufman, who's based in New York and helped build out Buchwald's alternative programming division, also helps develop potential projects for TV and film, from documentaries and docuseries to scripted projects. He said buyers see the global appeal in working with athletes. And he's seen more athletes take cues from what superstars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry have done in media and look to create projects themselves, optioning books to develop series or films, and more.
"They're really, really, really being incredibly smart and proactive in finding great IP to develop more and more content — and they see the power of it because of their brands," Kaufman said. "They see what they can do as individuals now put their name on a project and all of a sudden that's got global appeal."
Buchwald works with current and retired athletes across sports, from college to the pros, to help them find their voices in entertainment.
"It doesn't matter if you're the superstar of the team or you're on the bench," Crane said, "if you have a story and you have that strong 'why'... there's an opportunity for you. There is. This business is only growing."
Buchwald expanded into sports content nearly three years ago through a strategic partnership with the sports and media agency CSE that was announced in January 2021.
Relevant clients include: Jay Cutler (retired NFL player with 657,000 Instagram followers), Laurie Hernandez (Olympic gymnast with 1.5 million Instagram followers), Apolo Ohno (retired Olympic speedskater with 245,200 followers on X), Bobby Portis (NBA player with 298,000 Instagram followers), Ettore "Big E" Ewen (WWE superstar with 1 million Instagram followers), Devin Funchess (former NFL player with 179,000 Instagram followers)
CAA Sports Media co-heads Tom Young and Matt Kramer are helping clients navigate the burgeoning landscape of platforms
Tom Young and Matt Kramer, co-heads
Young and Kramer are co-heads of CAA Sports Media, where they represent a bevy of A-list sports talent including Travis Kelce, JJ Watt, Erin Andrews, and Doc Rivers, to name a few.
Young said one of the year's most impactful highlights was helping to take former Houston Texas and Arizona Cardinals superstar JJ Watt off the field and establishing him as a media personality, landing him a high-profile role on the CBS pre-game staple, "The NFL Today." Young added that Watt will figure into the network's Super Bowl coverage, among other big shows and specials. "It was just another success story of a longtime player client who had interest in media and was able to work in conjunction with his player agents to find the right opportunity for him," the agent said.
Another major highlight? Landing one of the year's biggest names in football — Travis Kelce — as a client who's repped by CAA for all his activities off the field.
Kramer identified among this year's leading achievements the signing of Bob Myers, the former president and general manager of the Golden State Warriors who, following retirement, arranged an opportunity on ESPN's "NBA Countdown" with CAA's help. Myers left the team in May and joined ESPN a few months later. Myers and CAA have had a longstanding relationship reflecting Myers' years-long ambitions to pursue media ambitions — Kramer said CAA helped Myers secure a deal with ESPN to produce a podcast, "Lead By Example," while he was still a general manager of the team. It all set the groundwork for a bigger deal Myers now enjoys with ESPN and its parent company, Disney.
To Kramer, the preponderance of new media platforms, from audio to streaming, has meant a wealth of opportunities for his clients. Many are expressing a desire to try models and modes of content creation that would have seemed unimaginable just five or 10 years ago, he said.
"They're interested in getting their content out to as wide of an audience as possible, and it doesn't mean that they have to sell their content to one of the core classic broadcast partners," he explained. "There's so many different media partners, media distributors, out there, that the landscape is significantly different than it was."
Relevant clients include: Travis Kelce (Kansas City Chiefs tight end with 5.2 million Instagram followers), Tony Romo (Dallas Cowboys quarterback with 711,000 Instagram followers), JJ Watt (former Arizona Cardinals defensive end with 4.4 million Instagram followers), Dwyane Wade (former Miami Heat point guard with 20.3 million Instagram followers), Erin Andrews (Fox Sports broadcaster with 2.1 million Instagram followers), Smylie Kaufman (professional golfer for the PGA Tour with 202,000 Instagram followers)
Curran Media’s Patrick and Tim Curran work with athlete content creators from college to the pros
Patrick and Tim Curran, founders
Former college athletes the Curran brothers in 2018 founded their company, which helps student-athletes with brand building and NIL marketing in addition to working with professionals and other sports content creators.
Curran Media's client roster includes Elon University football player Jon Seaton, who has 1.8 million TikTok followers and told BI he'd made more than $250,000 in the 18 months after the NCAA began allowing college athletes to make money from their NIL. Seaton — who's worked with brands including Amazon, Snickers, and Meta — was named the NIL male athlete of the year at the 2023 NIL Summit.
The firm recently helped North Florida basketball player Lyric Swann land a deal with toymaker NERF to participate in its first NERFBall tournament. It also guided former basketball player Trey Phillis in his transition to a career as a sports content creator.
Additional Curran Media clients include Deshaun Highler from Netflix's "Last Chance U: Basketball," and WNBA players Didi Richards, Dearica Hamby, and Shakira Austin.
Tim said the firm is pretty selective about the athletes and creators it brings on as clients.
"We look for people who are good creators and/or good athletes," he said over email. "It's case by case but if we think we can provide value to the talent we really look to explore a partnership."
Relevant clients include: Jon Seaton (Elon University football player with 1.8 million TikTok followers), Trey Phills (basketball player with 847,300 TikTok followers), Lyric Swann (North Florida basketball player with 832,000 TikTok followers), Didi Richards (WNBA player with 159,000 Instagram followers), Dearica Hamby (WNBA player with 133,000 Instagram followers)
Everett Sports Management’s Dan Everett, Rachel Everett, Jeff Hoffman, and Alexi Hecht are creating marketing opportunities for NFL players and college athletes
Dan Everett, Rachel Everett, Jeff Hoffman, partners; and Alexi Hecht, executive director of marketing
Everett Sports Management is led by Dan Everett, Rachel Everett, and Hoffman, who all serve as partners, as well as Hecht, the agency's executive director of marketing. Dan represents football players like Sam Howell and Brock Bowers, Rachel works with Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, and Hoffman and Hecht lead NIL efforts, including getting deals for the Cavinder twins, Haley and Hanna, basketball influencers who gained notoriety through NIL deals.
This year, Hoffman helped launch in July a NIL deal with Dwayne Johnson's energy drink company and seven college athletes, including client Brock Bowers. Rachel created an event in Phoenix, Arizona, during the Super Bowl centered around women in sports with talent and brands. Hecht helped secure a deal with the drink Seoul Juice that allowed Sam Howell and the Cavinder twins to take equity in the company. In the past year, other NIL deals by the agency included Powerade and Hyatt Hotels, which in December 2022 gave gift cards to Tennessee football player Jalin Hyatt's teammates for their families to use at the team's upcoming bowl game.
The agency steered the Cavinder twins through an eventful year for their business — in addition to the Seoul Juice deal, the sisters brought their "Twin Talk" to Jake Paul and Joey Levy's sports betting platform Betr, taking equity in the move. Upon Haley's announcement to return to basketball at Texas Christian University, ESM navigated the terms of the Betr deal within state compliance, Hoffman said.
Brands are recognizing the success of female creators who create strong relationships with their audience, Hoffman said, noting WWE and Cactus AI as two companies excited to work with women athletes.
"I'm more apt to go partner with the female athlete if the investment is the same because those followers are five times more likely to engage with that content," said Hoffman, drawing on his background in brand strategy.
ESM has also grown in the past year its in-house firm at the University of South Carolina, Park Avenue. The business, which is funded by the NIL collective Garnet Trust after initially partnering with the university itself, creates commercial deals for student-athletes. The firm has expanded its initial focus from football to deals with athletes from other sports. In the past year, baseball players signed with Hey Dude, a women's tennis player signed with Kendra Scott, and the women's basketball team did a deal with Under Armour, according to Park Avenue's Instagram.
Relevant clients include: Hanna and Haley Cavinder (basketball players and creators with 4.5 million TikTok followers), Jalen Hurts (Philadelphia Eagles quarterback with 1.7 million Instagram followers), D'Andre Swift (Philadelphia Eagles running back with about 350,000 Instagram followers), Brock Bowers (University of Georgia tight end with 125,000 Instagram followers)
Excel Sports Management's Gideon Cohen, Ryan Holcomb, and Kevin Hopkins work with athletes like Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter and help organize events like ‘The Netflix Cup’
Gideon Cohen, SVP of media talent; Ryan Holcomb, head of content; and Kevin Hopkins, VP of events
Excel is a New York-based sports agency that represents more than 450 clients, including legendary golfer Tiger Woods. It manages an estimated $3.6 billion in playing contracts, according to Forbes, and has also been expanding its work to help athletes build their brands off the court or field.
Content head Holcomb, who joined the agency in 2022 after building his career in entertainment at companies including Lionsgate, STX Entertainment, and the World Surf League, leads the agency's Excel Media division, which manages original programming and develops branded content. In the last year, he's worked on projects including an upcoming documentary about women's golf trailblazer Michelle Wie West; a series in development with Eli Manning that will build on his viral Chad Powers character from ESPN's "Eli's Places" to broaden his content empire beyond sport; and a show similar to the "Wahlburgers" reality series that follows the cast of characters behind one football player's business.
He previously helped oversee production on ESPN's "The Captain" docuseries with MLB great Derek Jeter, and NFL icon Joe Montana's "Cool Under Pressure" documentary.
Hopkins, VP of events, reps LPGA Tour players including Wie West and has produced new golf formats for TV, including the athlete-and-celebrity tournament "The Match." He recently pitched Netflix on the idea of centering "The Netflix Cup," the streamer's first foray into live sports, around F1's Las Vegas Grand Prix in November. Hopkins helped secure the golf course and talent for the event, which included Excel clients such as PGA Tour golfers Justin Thomas and Max Homa, among others.
Cohen, the agency's SVP of media talent, brokers broadcast and other deals for high-profile media talent. He helped Jeter kick off his broadcast career with a Fox deal, secured a new ESPN contract for retired NFL quarterback turned analyst Alex Smith, negotiated an ESPN studio analyst and podcast deal for NBA player CJ McCollum, and helped Peloton instructor Jess Sims build on her platform with on-air roles on ESPN's "College GameDay" and ABC's "Good Morning America."
Relevant clients include: Tiger Woods (PGA golfer with 3.3 million Instagram followers), Peyton Manning (retired NFL player with 684,000 Instagram followers), Derek Jeter (retired MLB player with 632,000 Instagram followers), CJ McCollum (NBA player with 1.3 million Instagram followers), Justin Thomas (PGA golfer with 1.5 million Instagram followers), Michelle Wie West (retired LPGA golfer with 614,000 Instagram followers), Collin Morikawa (PGA golfer with 607,000 Instagram followers), Max Homa (PGA golfer with 525,000 Instagram followers
Klutch Sports Group's Jade-Li English is helping dynamic female basketball players break barriers and elevate their brands
Jade-Li English, head of the women's basketball division
English is the head of the women's basketball division at Klutch Sports Group, having joined the firm in early 2022. She comes to her work with a degree of personal investment and passion, having been a former track star at the University of South Carolina.
Among her highest-profile achievements is building a practice where she represents the core three-star players of the back-to-back WNBA champions the Las Vegas Aces: A'ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, and Jackie Young. Wilson is preparing to release her memoir, "Dear Black Girls" — English has been key to helping coordinate the book's release and tour. She also reps the president of the Aces, Nikki Fargas, in addition to numerous other high-profile clients. Previously, English worked at Octagon and Roc Nation.
In 2023, English signed Jewell Loyd, a star point guard and shooting guard for the Seattle Storm, whose contract was extended with the team this fall. English praised the point guard for her talents on the court, and her impressive acumen as "such a dynamic business person" in her other ventures, too.
For Lloyd, highlights Klutch helped arrange included a partnership with food-delivery service Gopuff to debut a "Jewell Loyd Snack Collection" for customers, ranging from protein bars to sparkling water. Gopuff also agreed to provide a variety of snacks and beverages to members of the Seattle Storm team each week.
A major trend English noticed this year was a dramatic growth in podcasting and audio opportunities. One of the most scintillating parts of her job is being exposed to other sports through her clients, who are primarily basketball players but also have other interests beyond the court, she said. "I have one client who's all of a sudden interested in golf now. So it's really facilitating helping her learn how to play — but then also, what are the business opportunities around that as well?" she said.
How does she navigate the dynamic shift from basketball to golf, two sports that take place in different mediums and tend to attract different kinds of audiences? "I just have to educate myself, honestly," English said. "Now I have to somewhat learn that landscape."
Relevant clients include: A'ja Wilson (Las Vegas Aces power forward with 821,000 Instagram followers), Chelsea Gray (Las Vegas Aces point guard with 124,000 Instagram followers), Jordin Canada (Los Angeles Sparks point guard with 73,500 Instagram followers), Allisha Gray (Dallas Wings shooting guard with 56,500 Instagram followers), Jerzy Robinson (member of the Sierra Canyon High School girls' basketball team with nearly 37,000 Instagram followers)
Limitless NIL’s Trevor Robinson is helping college athlete creators score brand deals and boost engagement with their followers
Trevor Robinson, cofounder and director of brand relations
Green Bay Packers back-up quarterback Sean Clifford and his former Penn State University classmate Robinson founded Limitless NIL to both help athletes capitalize on their NIL and prepare for a career after sports, Robinson said.
The agency represents both current athletes and sports creators and said it has negotiated deals with companies including Under Armour, Bose, Powerade, Raising Cane's, and NERF. Many requests the agency gets from brands are for female athletes, Robinson said, like college basketball player Anna Camden, who is sidelined with a knee injury. For its sports and athlete creators who post more frequently, Limitless gives advanced stats to track how their content performs and how to grow their audience.
"When it comes to being a content creator, it's really just the quality of the content, the engagement is most important," said Robinson, who serves as director of brand relations. "You could have all the followers in the world, but if no one's engaging with your posts, what's that really doing for the brand?"
Limitless bought last year a photography studio in State College, Pennsylvania, for its clients to use. Some of its student-athletes recently started businesses selling apparel or soccer equipment and use the studio to create content. The company also hires creatives to help guide its less social-media-savvy clients in the studio.
The agency also focuses on creating opportunities for athletes to post positive content that their followers will love, even if it's not a big financial deal. Limitless client and Kansas State University quarterback Will Howard partnered with the college-athlete-crowdfunding platform Champsraise to support a mother with breast cancer, for example, which Limitless said he did not get paid to do.
"We try to encourage them to put a face behind the face mask," Robinson said. "A lot of guys just want to keep their brand football or basketball only, but we try to encourage them to post stuff that shows what they like to do outside of their sports and make that personal connection grow."
Relevant clients include: Sean Clifford (Green Bay Packers quarterback with about 75,000 Instagram followers), Caleb Hammett (University of Massachusetts lacrosse player with 2 million TikTok followers), Shane Porter (Kansas State University football player with 1 million TikTok followers), Bjorn Broman (basketball creator with 1 million TikTok followers), Femi Awodesu (Penn State men's soccer player with about 385,000 TikTok followers), Anna Camden (University of Richmond women's basketball player with about 275,000 TikTok followers)
Kyell Thomas, Jason Weichelt, and Jeremy Aisenberg from Octagon help athletes tell their stories, from podcasts to docuseries to social
Jeremy Aisenberg, VP of media, broadcasting, and content; Jason Weichelt, VP of content and development; and Kyell Thomas, managing director for entertainment and production
Octagon represents some of the biggest names in sports, from Steph Curry to Simone Biles to Michael Phelps. The agency represents upwards of 50 sponsors and advertisers and more than 900 sports and entertainment clients, Octagon said.
The high-profile roster allows the agency to tell the stories of influential figures, including July's four-part Max docuseries called "The Last Run" about client Shaun White's final Olympics, which was executive produced by Thomas, the agency's managing director for entertainment and production, and its global director of action sports Amen Teter.
Thomas and Weichelt, the VP of content and development, helped develop and produce "Grails" for Hulu and ABC, a series about former Morehouse College golfers who created a lifestyle golf brand to increase diversity in the sport. Octagon client and "SportsCenter" anchor Hannah Storm directed the project, which aired in December 2022.
The agency also works with sports creators — VP of media, broadcasting, and content Aisenberg helped golf creator and client Paige Spiranac debut in January a paid content platform and create original content for her more than 11 million social-media followers. Aisenberg said Octagon's ability to monetize its clients' digital and social content has helped propel successful campaigns with female athletes and creators, who have especially engaged and authentic fanbases.
"I think in the world of digital, it's not an aspect anymore of women looking for a seat at the table," Weichelt said. "They are the table, in a lot of ways, and drive a lot of that content."
All three also worked this year on fresh content for the agency's podcast platform. Octagon in 2023 launched more than 10 new shows, with hosts such as a Paralympic gold medalist and an LPGA golfer.
The agency is adapting to the growing wave of younger athletes who have grown up in the digital age, and it's no longer just about presenting opportunities to clients but working to develop their ideas, Weichelt said.
"We're living in a world where the athletes themselves have ideas and concepts and they're oftentimes not just social things. 'I have an idea for a TV show. I want to do a game show,'" Weichelt said. "'I want to make a movie.' Whatever those things are, they're just so much further along in their own development of what that means that I think we all have to shift a little bit."
Relevant clients include: Simone Biles (Olympic gymnast with 7.1 million Instagram followers), Michael Phelps (Olympic swimmer with 3.4 million Instagram followers), Shaun White (Olympic snowboarder with 2.1 million Instagram followers), Paige Spiranac (golf creator with 3.9 million Instagram followers)
Paradigm Sports’ Audie Attar oversees MMA star Conor McGregor’s businesses beyond the ring including his upcoming acting debut
Audie Attar, founder and CEO
Attar founded Paradigm Sports, a management agency that works with athletes mainly in combat sports and soccer, as well as coaches and media personalities.
He's been working since 2013 with MMA star Conor McGregor, helping to oversee his businesses both inside and outside of the ring, from putting together the massive 2017 Mayweather vs. McGregor pay-per-view event on the boxer's behalf to managing his whiskey brand.
More recently, Attar has helped McGregor expand into the entertainment world. The former UFC champion is set to make his acting debut in the remake of the movie "Road House," which Attar will executive produce. Attar also executive produced McGregor's Netflix docuseries, "McGregor Forever," which premiered this year.
Relevant clients include: Conor McGregor (MMA fighter and boxer with 47.1 million Instagram followers), Rico Verhoeven (kickboxer with 2 million Instagram followers), Johnny Walker (MMA fighter with 1.6 million Instagram followers), Michael Bisping (retired MMA fighter and media personality with 1.9 million Instagram followers), Stephen Thompson (MMA fighter with 958,000 Instagram followers), Jozy Altidore (former professional soccer player with 205,000 Instagram followers), Jermaine Jones (coach and former soccer player with 134,000 Instagram followers)
Michael Raymond and Miggie Suarez of Raymond Representation are putting a focus on female college athletes
Michael Raymond, CEO and founder, and Miggie Suarez, head of NIL
Raymond Representation, founded by Raymond, the CEO, mainly does NIL work for college athletes, but also represents about 15 creators and a handful of professional athletes. Clients have recently signed deals with M&M's, Amazon Prime, NERF, Max, and Wendy's.
Some of Raymond's highest performing clients are women college athletes, both for the quality of their content and the attention they draw from brands, the agency said. Raymond recently brought on a junior agent to run his gymnastics division. Emily Cole, who runs track and field at Duke University, has done deals with companies such as Oofos, Meta's VR headset company, and Therabody— and written a book about nutrition for athletes.
"Honestly, I think they're going to be the faces of NIL in the next three to five years, if not now," Raymond said, adding that he thinks more female athletes will be getting six-and-seven-figure NIL deals soon.
Raymond, who manages most of the talent and growth, hired Suarez as head of NIL with a specific focus on growing the firm's portfolio of female athletes. Suarez now handles a large portion of NIL activities — she recently closed a six-figure deal with an energy company split among more than a dozen clients, Raymond said.
The agency in 2023 has averaged more than 30 deals per month, Raymond said. But to be successful in NIL, athletes need to understand that it's about more than making money, he said.
"Obviously, the goal is to make you a lot of money, and that's how we do a good job. But at the end of the day, NIL is such a bigger opportunity," Raymond said. "It's a way to build a foundation for yourself, build a network for yourself, have a Rolodex of people, get in the right rooms, shake the right hands, meet alumni, all these things, interact with the fans, and find out things about business that you can actually learn on your own while in college."
Relevant clients include: Emily Cole (Duke University track and field athlete with 325,000 TikTok followers), Mia Mastrov (University of California basketball player with 670,000 TikTok followers), Jaylin James (sports creator with 3 million TikTok followers), Jonathan Odom (University of Florida football player now in transfer portal with 133,000 TikTok followers)
Roc Nation’s Lori York is developing TV and film projects with athletes like Vinícius Júnior and Dez Bryant
Lori York, executive vice president of TV and film
York helps Roc Nation's athletes and music artists manage content opportunities on- and off-camera. She also oversees the agency's original content.
The New York-based executive spent over 20 years of her career producing, packaging, and selling unscripted TV shows at agencies including CAA, where she also led the sports-crossover team that worked with superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, and Aaron Rodgers to launch production companies, negotiate deals, and sell original projects.
Since joining Roc Nation in 2021, York has executive produced several documentaries including an upcoming Amazon feature about the McDonald's All American Games. She worked on a documentary about the South African rugby star Siya Kolisi that won the 2023 Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. And she sold a documentary to Netflix about the African women's football club, Mamelodi Sundowns FC, who were the first champions of the CAF Women's Champions League.
Roc Nation is also working with Amazon and Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society on the upcoming series about the early life of Muhammad Ali, called "The Greatest."
And York is developing several projects with current and retired athletes including Albert Pujols, Dez Bryant, Vinícius Júnior, and Endrick, to name a few, as well as co-developing a baseball series with LeBron James and Maverick Carter's The Springhill Company.
Relevant clients include: Siya Kolisi (Rugby player with 1.1 million followers), Albert Pujols (retired MLB player with 410,00 Instagram followers), Dez Bryant (retired NFL player with 2.3 million Instagram followers), Endrick (soccer player with 5.8 million Instagram followers), Vinícius Júnior (soccer player with 43.5 million Instagram followers), Rudy Gay (NBA player with 702,000 Instagram followers), Danny Green (NBA player with 1.1 million Instagram followers), LaMelo Ball (NBA player with 10.3 million Instagram followers)
Rubicon Talent’s Peter Raskin is helping athletes explore traditional and newer media opportunities, even before they finish playing
Peter Raskin, founder and partner
Raskin, founder and partner at Rubicon Talent, has helped clients find new ways to interact with their fans, especially through podcasts and social media. Most of Rubicon's clients are in the NFL, while it also represents broadcasters, NCAA athletes, Olympians, and celebrity chefs. Rubicon helps athletes land endorsement deals, get jobs in broadcast media, host their alternate telecasts, and start podcasts.
Raskin helped launch in 2022 the podcast-media company Audiorama, led by client Greg Olsen, Vince Vaughn, and Ryan Kalil, and collaborated with Olsen to create its flagship show. He also guided clients in launching their own podcasts, including Maxx Crosby, George Kittle, Darren Waller, Mark Ingram II, Raheem Mostert, and Lolo Jones.
Raskin also works with players to get ready for careers in broadcast media before retiring from football, including Olsen and Ingram, the agency said.
Relevant clients include: George Kittle (San Francisco 49ers tight end with 1.3 million Instagram followers), Greg Olsen (former NFL player and Fox broadcaster with about 400,000 Instagram followers), Mark Ingram II (former NFL player and Fox analyst with about 575,000 Instagram followers), Maxx Crosby (Las Vegas Raiders defensive end with 490,000 Instagram followers)
Smith&Saint’s Britt St. George, Madison Smith, and Kaila McWilliams help athlete influencers build their brands and stage second acts in media
Britt St. George, cofounder and CEO; Madison Smith, cofounder and chief operating officer; Kaila McWilliams, chief marketing officer
For many of the athletes Smith&Saint works with, there aren't professional leagues to pursue after college or competing in the Olympics. The boutique agency, headquartered in Boston, works mainly with women athletes in fields such as gymnastics, dance, and fencing where there are few options to compete at the professional level.
Sisters St. George and Smith — sports and entertainment attorneys with backgrounds in influencer marketing — founded the agency in 2018 to help these athletes transition from sports to being entrepreneurs. Their work includes building influencer businesses, securing NIL marketing deals, expanding into TV or commentary work, and launching brands.
Today, Smith&Saint has about 35 clients including current and former athletes, as well as content creators in the food and lifestyle spaces.
In the past year, the agency helped NCAA gymnast Sunisa Lee land a Self Magazine cover story and an advertising deal with Sony's PlayStation, secured retired Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin a clothing-line collaboration with Dillards, and helped former "Dancing With the Stars" pro Lyndsay Arnold launch a fitness app and plan her next moves in media.
Smith&Saint's marketing chief, McWilliams, also works with several gymnasts and professional dancers who have been on "Dancing with the Stars." She started her career at Oklahoma City Thunder before moving to the agency world and working with clients including AT&T.
Relevant clients include: Sunisa Lee (NCAA and Olympic gymnast with 1.5 million Instagram followers), Nastia Liukin (Olympic gymnast with 1 million Instagram followers), Lindsay Arnold Cusick (professional dancer with 1.3 million Instagram followers), Hezly Rivera (gymnast with 13 million Instagram followers), Kelsey Wells (fitness trainer with 3 million Instagram followers), Jenna Johnson Chmerkovskiy (professional dancer with 922,000 Instagram followers)
UTA's J.B. Fitzgerald is helping women in sports soar to new heights as they take center stage in analyzing men's athletic events
J.B. Fitzgerald, agent, news and broadcasting
Fitzgerald is an agent within the news and broadcasting division at UTA, a firm where he's risen through the ranks after starting in its mailroom program just over a decade ago. He was formerly an All-Academic Big Ten football player, which opened the door to his interests in the intersection of sports and mass media.
His clients include leading media personalities like former football player turned Fox sports commentator Mark Sanchez, retired NFL tight end Vernon Davis, NBC sports personality Laura Britt, and more.
Fitzgerald also pointed to a new wave of opportunities for female voices in sports commentary and analysis, especially in terms of male-driven sports — not just reporting courtside, but serving as voices on the front lines, helping viewers break down stunning moments and standing at the vanguard of live athletic events.
"Women commentating and analyzing men's sports is still a little bit on the newer verge, and that's something that I think we've had a lot of success with," over the past year, he said — a trend he described as overdue. He pointed to the groundbreaking example of Andraya Carter, an ESPN basketball analyst, who was announced last month as the first female analyst with a full-time role on the network's "College GameDay" program.
He also pointed to a deal that UTA helped arrange for Carolyn Peck, who became the youngest coach of a women's Division I basketball national championship team when she scored that role at 33 years old. Later in life, she's gone on to become a high-profile voice on ESPN. Now, as a result of the new deal, Peck is set to have a more prominent role commentating on and calling men's basketball, Fitzgerald added.
"It doesn't matter what your gender background is. If you have the knowledge and the experience and can speak and analyze and communicate your points to an audience, then it shouldn't matter," he continued, adding: "As a father of two young girls, that's something that's near and dear to my heart —that there's no barriers, especially when it comes to the media side."
Relevant clients include: Vernon Davis (former NFL tight end with 1 million Instagram followers), LeSean McCoy (former NFL player with 590,000 Instagram followers), Mark Sanchez (NFL analyst with more than 80,000 Instagram followers), Laura Britt (NBC Sports personality with more than 16,000 Instagram followers)
Wasserman’s Lindsay Kagawa Colas is creating new media opportunities for women’s basketball’s biggest stars
Lindsay Kagawa Colas, executive VP of talent and The Collective
Kagawa Colas joined Wasserman in 2009 and serves as the agency's EVP overseeing talent and The Collective, its women-focused arm. Kagawa Colas represents some of the biggest superstars in women's basketball, including Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, and Brittney Griner.
Kagawa Colas recently negotiated Griner's deal with Disney to make an ESPN documentary about her detainment in Russia and a limited series for ABC. Kagawa Colas will serve as one of the executive producers on the project.
The agent helped in December 2022 launch A Touch More, a production company by client Bird and her wife and World Cup champion, Megan Rapinoe. Kagawa Colas also works with Bird and Olympic swimmer client Simone Manuel to build out their digital storytelling platform Togethxr.
Kagawa Colas in 2022 got Bird and Taurasi on an alternate ESPN broadcast during the NCAA Women's Final Four called "The Bird and Taurasi Show." The duo returned in 2023 as part of ESPN's most-watched airing of the championship event.
Relevant clients include: Brittney Griner (Phoenix Mercury player with about 715,000 Instagram followers), Diana Taurasi (former WNBA player with about 310,000 Instagram followers), Sue Bird (former WNBA player with about 735,000 Instagram followers), Simone Manuel (Olympic gold medalist with about 220,000 Instagram followers)
WME Sports is building a practice repping celebrated athletes like Olivia Dunne and Shaun White, and helping legends like Serena Williams launch her production company.
Lee White, partner and agent; Kelly Sherman, agent; and Reed Zabel, agent
WME's team of sports-media agents has built a strong practice helping leading athletes launch and manage production companies. The team also represents a bevy of top-shelf athletes in their media pursuits, like celebrated gymnast Olivia Dunne.
Sherman, an agent in WME's sports division, counts among her clients The SpringHill Company, which is a collection of media companies launched by basketball legend LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter.
One major challenge she pointed to this year was the unexpectedly tepid market for unscripted content —many industry insiders predicted that reality programming would experience a boom during the writers' and actors' strikes of 2023, but that eruption never came. "Because of that, any of the very small wins here and there felt a lot bigger," Sherman said.
She pointed to landmark deals the firm was still able to land, like an opportunity for a director client to spearhead a documentary about a "very famous basketball player," of whom the client is personally a "huge fan." (Sherman did not share additional specifics, saying that the network hasn't announced the project yet.) She also cited the sale of the show, "Quarterback," an eight-part series acquired by Netflix, as a big accomplishment.
Another high point for the team was helping tennis superstar Serena Williams launch her new multimedia production company, Nine Two Six Productions, tapping Caroline Currier, a veteran of production company Grand Electric, to serve as president.
Zabel, a newer member of the team focused on documentary and unscripted content, is also climbing the ranks, repping celebrated names like former snowboarder and skateboarder Shaun White. The agent said one of his top highlights was signing American skateboarder Nyjah Huston, whom he likened to Gen Z's answer to Tony Hawk.
White, a partner and agent at the firm, said seeing shows in development for several years come to fruition —like "Welcome to Wrexham," a show that premiered on the FX network during the latter part of 2022 — had been particularly satisfying. That show chronicles the story of Wrexham AFC, a Welsh football club owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
"I know what has gone into it —all the blood, sweat, and tears," he said, "but from a viewer standpoint, you don't see all that stuff."
Perhaps most importantly, White stressed how critical it is for his clients to be genuine. "The audience is more savvy than they've ever been," he explained. "They know what's fake. And so when you're doing something, you have to come at it from an authenticity standpoint."
Relevant clients include: Omaha Productions, The SpringHill Company, The Kobe Bryant Estate, Religion of Sports, Omaha Productions, Fager Films, Christian Pulisic (soccer player for AC Milan and captain of the US national team with 7.9 million Instagram followers), Nyjah Huston (Olympic skateboarder with 5.1 million Instagram followers), Lindsey Vonn (Olympic skier with 2.2 million Instagram followers), and Shaun White (Olympic snowboarder and skateboarder with 2.1 million Instagram followers)
This story was originally published on December 15, 2023, and most recently updated on December 19.
Correction — December 19, 2023: This story originally misstated Kaila McWilliams' last name. The story also misstated Paige Spiranac's audience; she has 11 million social-media followers, not subscribers.
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