I admittedly know NOTHING about this situation, and in terms of contracts the devil is in the details as they say. But thought this was an interesting situation nonetheless.
It's from an Athletic article, so perhaps behind a paywall.
Cliff's Notes: Allegedly Perfect Game, and their partner Fanatics, are requiring amateur baseball players that want to participate in the PG showcases and tourneys to sign away their NIL rights.
A few snippets:
It's from an Athletic article, so perhaps behind a paywall.
Cliff's Notes: Allegedly Perfect Game, and their partner Fanatics, are requiring amateur baseball players that want to participate in the PG showcases and tourneys to sign away their NIL rights.
A few snippets:
- While it's seen as a landmark deal for Perfect Game, the contract has stoked worries among a group of baseball agents, many of whom believe Perfect Game's requirement that amateur players sign away their name, image and likeness rights to participate in tournaments is exploitative, unethical and costing players future earnings.
- "We have warned players for the past two years that Perfect Game is now (signing) away your individual rights for cards and for other things that should not be the design of the platform," said Scott Boras, arguably the most powerful agent in the sport. "They have now gotten into profit-taking on this. We're letting all young athletes know this is a reason not to sign their documents, not to participate. If they demand that, I wouldn't recommend student-athletes give away those rights. Why would they?"
- Added another veteran agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid any blowback for players he advises: "They are getting kids underage to sign contracts with no representation at all, and parents (also sign) who don't understand the ramifications. It's unethical and borderline illegal. They know that and they're still doing it. There should be a class action lawsuit against Perfect Game by the parents."
- Typically, when players are drafted in a high round by an MLB team, they get a rookie card deal or a memorabilia deal.
"Now Fanatics owns all of this and they can say, 'We don't need to do a deal with you, we have your signature already,'" said another agent. "Why would they pay for more when they have a warehouse full of stickers you've signed and consented to already?"