How the MarketPryce Online Marketplace Helps Connect Athletes and Businesses for Marketing Offers


For two years, Jason Bergman represented a dozen professional athletes, trying to help them make marketing deals. Bergman, a young and ambitious sports fan and salesman, sent cold emails and social media messages and made unsolicited phone calls to businesses. He hoped to get money from his clients, who weren’t big names or established, in return for product promotion or the appearance. Most of the time, he got no response as companies were inundated with inquiries and only worked with people they had pre-existing relationships or knew through other connections.

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This experience led Bergman to believe that there was a better way to do business. And so, in February 2020, he contacted Shehryar Khan, a former colleague of Bergman at Robly, an email marketing company. Bergman and Khan quickly founded MarketPryce, an online marketplace connecting athletes and businesses that officially launched in January.

Bergman compares MarketPryce to Tinder and other dating sites with an emphasis on building connections in a quick and easy way. Since the launch of MarketPryce, more than 1,000 athletes and 250 companies have signed up for the platform. More than 20 percent of athlete registrations took place this month, coinciding with the NCAA allowing students to enjoy their name, image and likeness. MarketPryce has also generated more interest from businesses.

“Brands see this as a very good opportunity to reach a younger demographic,” said Bergman. “They see it as a great marketing opportunity because it’s not that expensive to work with varsity athletes and everyone is talking about it now. It’s like a gold rush for college athletes. We have tons of companies that just did campaigns specifically for student athletes because of this. “

Companies can sign up for MarketPryce for free, post as many opportunities as they want, and contact any athlete on the site. They can offer athletes free products in exchange for promoting the brand on social media or elsewhere, as well as paying them for promotions or appearances. MarketPryce charges a 5% processing fee for all deals companies make with athletes, although it doesn’t get anything if the companies simply offer free items.

Meanwhile, the monthly price to register for athletes ranges from as little as $ 15 for college students and $ 49 for professionals. Athlete Agents and Advisors pay $ 99 per month for up to 10 of their clients and up to $ 399 per month for 51 or more clients. Athletes, Agents and Advisors receive a 50 percent discount for annual membership.

Oxygen Plus, an Edina, Minnesota company that manufactures and markets recreational oxygen products, recently signed up with MarketPryce in large part to connect with college athletes. The company has sent samples to around 50 athletes and plans to sign paid deals this month.

“Our product and youth are a perfect match,” said Lauren Carlstrom, COO of Oxygen Plus. “They really care about well-being. He really aligns with today’s varsity athletes. It’s new to us, but we’re excited about it.

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She added, “Part of the benefit of going with a varsity athlete is that he understands wellness maybe better than some of the older pros. As a brand, we are going to have influence and education not only for themselves, but also for the communities of which they are a part.

Ally Redig was one of the first to adopt MarketPryce. She is the founder of Athlete Relations, a company that works primarily with the NFL and professional footballers on planning events, charity events, camps and other events. The company doesn’t typically focus on securing marketing deals, but Redig signed up for MarketPryce because of its ease of use, low cost, and direct access to businesses.

“If I can offer this as an added bonus to my clients, it’s amazing,” Redig said. “They are happy about it, and I am happy about it.”

She added, “Every time we log in there is more to (MarketPryce). I really think there are going to be a lot of deals coming up, that’s for sure.

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So far, Redig’s customers have mostly done transactions where they get free material or items in exchange for a promotion. But John Franklin, one of his clients and big receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has signed a deal with Esportz Network to appear on the Gamer Hour show that airs online. Franklin was interviewed on camera, performed Call of Duty: Warzone with the show host, and received $ 2,000 for about an hour of work.

Mark Thimmig, founder and CEO of the Esportz Network, said he posted a list on MarketPryce looking for athletes to appear on Gamer Hour. About 15 agents representing dozens of athletes responded to the request, a better response rate than Thimmig expected because he hadn’t known them before. Thimmig couldn’t book everyone on the show, but he made deals with Franklin, Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler and a few others.

“(MarketPryce) has really opened a lot of doors for people who represent these athletes, that’s what you need to do,” Thimmig said. “You have to go through their representatives and marketing agents to work with these athletes.”

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MarketPryce raised $ 250,000 in a first round of funding earlier this year. He recently met with venture capitalists about raising a Series A round of roughly $ 2 million. The company has six full-time employees, two of whom were hired this month.

For now, MarketPryce focuses only on sports and connects athletes and businesses. Still, Bergman could someday see the platform signing up social media stars and others looking to make some extra cash.

“Sport is just the tip of the iceberg for us,” said Bergman. “We also want to explore the general economy of creators, so TikTok stars, YouTube stars, general influencers. But first we want to be the greatest player in the sport.

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