In 2021, laws were passed making it possible for collegiate student-athletes to profit from their Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). That paved the way for independent organizations called Collectives to form who fundraise and broker brand deals to support student-athletes attending various schools.
Fancards was founded in 2015 as a prepaid financial tech company specializing in collegiately licensed gift and reloadable cards for fans. However, in 2023 the official Collective of Oklahoma State University Athletics, Pokes With a Purpose (PWAP) was seeking a solution to streamline its payments to student-athletes.
NIL Collective Case Study
Introduction:
Introduction:
In 2021, laws were passed making it possible for collegiate student-athletes to profit from their Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). That paved the way for independent organizations called Collectives to form who fundraise and broker brand deals to support student-athletes attending various schools.
Fancards was founded in 2015 as a prepaid financial tech company specializing in collegiately licensed gift and reloadable cards for fans. However, in 2023 the official Collective of Oklahoma State University Athletics, Pokes With a Purpose (PWAP) was seeking a solution to streamline its payments to student-athletes.
Challenge:
Pokes With a Purpose had a growing number of Oklahoma State student-athletes, some without bank accounts, opting into the Collective after it was founded in 2022.
The Collective was still relying on outdated means to distribute payments to student-athletes and needed to modernize.
A substantial number of their student-athletes wanted their own personal means of receiving payments to keep their Collective earnings more private, and put themselves in control.
PWAP needed detailed reporting to send back to the University to disclose payments made to the athletes.
Solution:
Fancards quickly produced a custom-branded reloadable Mastercard for PWAP, and the Collective gained the ability to bulk pay athletes, saving time and lowering transaction costs.
Fancards took all of PWAP’s requests for additions to the Benjamin platform, and built in a plethora of upgrades to manage payments to their student-athletes.
Players received their cards which gave them the ability to link a bank account, send funds to family or other loved ones and tap into the full suite of Mastercard security and ID theft prevention features.
Fancards also fully tailored the reporting mechanisms of Benjamin to satisfy PWAP’s requirements with the University.
Results and Impact:
PWAP quickly and easily onboarded the entire Football, Baseball and Men’s Basketball teams to begin with, who are all receiving NIL payments through Benjamin by Fancards.
The Collective has effortlessly provided nearly $1 million in funds to their student-athletes in the first several months.
