Yelp for NIL Athletes

The NCAA’s Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) industry remains highly fragmented, inefficient, and inaccessible to most student-athletes. While elite athletes in revenue-generating sports command lucrative deals, most struggle to access meaningful opportunities to monetize their NIL. 

To solve this, ‘the industry’ should consider leveraging Yelp. Yelp and its existing local business network could accelerate the creation of a scalable, equitable NIL marketplace. By applying the Atomic Network theory from Andrew Chen’s The Cold Start Problem, Yelp could become the foundational platform that democratizes NIL—just as Uber did for transportation.

Yelp for democratizing NIL for all athletes

Decentralized Network is the Ideal Foundation to Democratize NIL

Uber’s success stemmed from launching in small, localized atomic networks (e.g., San Francisco) before scaling nationwide. The same principle applies to NIL. Rather than building a new NIL marketplace or retrofitting old ones, Yelp’s existing network of local businesses, restaurants, and service providers offers an ideal foundation.

• Universities are Embedded in Yelp’s Ecosystem – Most college towns and cities already have an active Yelp presence.

• Predefined Local Business Network – Thousands of small and mid-sized businesses use Yelp to attract customers—these businesses represent potential NIL sponsors who could partner with student-athletes for hyperlocal campaigns.

• Built-in Community Trust – Yelp’s verified review system fosters trust, reducing friction for businesses hesitant to enter the NIL space.

• Easy NIL Adoption – Businesses could update their Yelp profiles to indicate they are "NIL-friendly," signaling interest in athlete partnerships.

By expanding Yelp’s core functionality, the platform could seamlessly integrate NIL matchmaking, campaign management, and payments—creating a frictionless NIL economy for both businesses and student-athletes.

Applying The Atomic Network Theory to NIL

For any network-based marketplace to succeed, it must establish an Atomic Network—a self-sustaining micro-community that proves viability before broader expansion. Yelp’s NIL platform would follow Uber’s model by launching in a single university town, optimizing the demand-supply balance, then scaling outward to other university towns across a given State. (e.g. California and the UC System) would be an ideal atomic network.

Atomic NIL Network Stakeholders:

• Supply: Student-athletes (and their parents) seeking NIL deals.

• Demand: Local businesses eager to market their products through student-athlete influencers.

• Supporting Nodes: University compliance departments, athletic departments, and existing athletic sponsors.

Solving NIL’s "Cold Start Problem"

One of the biggest challenges in NIL is the match-making process: brands hesitate to engage with unknown athletes as a matter of brand risk, and athletes are too busy to build trust without visibility to market opportunities. Yelp could help both primary stakeholders overcome this by:

1. Enabling Businesses to Opt-In as NIL Sponsors – A simple “Accepts NIL Promotions” badge on business profiles would instantly create a marketplace.

2. Hyperlocal NIL Activation – Yelp could seed the first NIL deals in select markets such as UC campuses, ensuring early success.

3. AI-Powered Matchmaking – Using Yelp’s existing recommendation algorithms, athletes and brands could be paired based on mutual interests and audience demographics.

4. Automated Payments & Compliance – Yelp could introduce smart contracts and secure transactions to handle deal execution, payments, and tax documentation—or partner with market-leading third-party payment service - removing friction for businesses and athletes alike.

5. Review-Based Reputation System – Businesses and athletes could build credibility through Yelp’s review system, ensuring trust and transparency.

Decentralized NIL Network Design Benefits

Current NIL platforms like Opendorse and INFLCR operate as centralized, monolithic marketplaces, requiring brands to actively seek out athletes. This model is inefficient and favors elite athletes while leaving the majority underserved. Yelp’s decentralized, location-based model would instead:

• Embed NIL opportunities within local business communities—ensuring more inclusive access.

• Lower barriers to entry for small and mid-sized businesses, who otherwise wouldn’t engage with NIL.

• Enable organic, city-by-city NIL growth instead of relying on a national-scale marketplace.

By shifting from a static NIL marketplace to a dynamic, locally-driven NIL network, Yelp could democratize access while fostering sustainable, scalable NIL adoption.

Yelp Powered NIL Network Benefits

NIL Network Benefits vs. Traditional NIL Marketplaces

Required Innovations for Yelp’s NIL Expansion

To transform Yelp into the go-to NIL marketplace, several key system enhancements would be required:

1. Business Profile Integration for NIL Sponsorships

   • New profile tag: “Accepts NIL Promotions”

   • Enhanced filters for athletes to find businesses open to NIL deals

   • Automated NIL campaign management tools for businesses

2. AI-Powered Athlete-Brand Matching

   • Machine learning models to match athletes with businesses based on engagement, audience demographics, lifestyle attributes and brand alignment

3. NIL Deal Execution & Payment Processing

   • Secure, automated payment processing to ensure athletes receive compensation upon successful campaign completion

4. Compliance Automation & University Integration

   • Auto-generated NIL compliance reports for university compliance offices

   • Secure data-sharing portal for NCAA, state, and school compliance teams

5. Trust & Reputation System for NIL Transactions

   • Review-based rating system for businesses and athletes

   • AI-driven fraud detection to prevent exploitative NIL deals

Conclusion

By leveraging existing local business networks, AI-powered matchmaking, and compliance automation, Yelp is uniquely positioned to Uberize NIL—unlocking opportunities for every student-athlete across every sport in every university town.

Instead of relying on static NIL marketplaces, the future of NIL must embrace a decentralized, scalable platform that prioritizes local market adoption, organic growth, and transaction transparency.

Dare to dream!

Skip Roncal

cofounder &investor

Mobeliz

*Watch for our follow-up post that describes the system architecture requirements to enable this proposed solution.