Opendorse, the performer NIL technology system, issued a circular of layoffs this year, four months after the Nebraska-based organization made a major change to its senior structure.
The company cut roughly 15 positions ( 23 % ), according to sources familiar with the situation, bringing its current workforce to around 50 staffers. That’s about half of what Opendorse employed a few years before, when it staffed up following the NCAA’s implementation of title, image and likeness.
” We’re restructuring to better align with our priorities for 2025 and set ourselves up for long-term success”, Blake Lawrence, Opendorse’s co-founder, told Sportico in a statement. These modifications were intended as part of a comprehensive plan to simplify our operations and increase our progress focus.

In July, Opendorse announced that Stephen Denton, a lifelong e-commerce professional, would remove Lawrence as the company’s chief executive, with Lawrence shifting to the role of president of undergraduate activities.
The platform, which claims to have captured more than a quarter-billion dollars of NIL deals, was named by Time as one of the world’s “most influential” companies in 2023. The company has also raised$ 40 million in venture capital funding, from a group of investors that includes Flyover Capital, Serra Ventures, ex-NFL player Will Compton and former ESPN and racing executive Sean Bratches.
The restructuring of Opendorse is a result of the aging NIL technology sector’s overall consolidation, with athletes ‘ salaries increasingly being reliant on collectives and brands to evaluate their ability to earn money when hiring college players to promote their goods and services.
Lawrence and Opendorse’s other co-founder, Adi Kunalic, both played football at the University of Nebraska, with Kunalic going on to sign with the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent. They officially launched their business in 2013.
Opendorse’s third annual industry report, which predicted athletes would receive$ 1.67 billion in non-profit funding this year” with no signs of slowing down,” was released in July 2024.
( This story’s headline has been updated. )