SCBP, Knights of The Raritan team up to promote NIL opportunities

The Somerset County Business Partnership (SCBP) and the Knights of The Raritan (KTR) announced Nov. 1 they are joining together to promote name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities to New Jersey businesses.

With the announcement, SCBP becomes the first New Jersey business organization to promote KTR’s NIL business subscription model to its members, which is designed to make it easy to harness the power of Rutgers’ student-athlete influencers and connect them with businesses looking to boost and promote their brands, products or events.

The move comes amid a flurry of activity in the NIL space following last year’s decision by the NCAA to allow student athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness, which NJBIZ has extensively chronicled.

“The Somerset County Business Partnership is proud to partner with the Knights of The Raritan (KTR) in this historic agreement. Many Somerset County businesses are located only a few miles from campus and have been tapping into the schools’ massive appeal for years,” said Chris Edwards, president and CEO, Somerset County Business Partnership. “By partnering with KTR, we can help our members grow their audience by engaging directly with student athletes. We look forward to helping get the word out as the business community continues to learn about the benefits of this new business industry.”

Through the subscription model, KTR provides access to student athletes to collaborate on a wide variety of marketing opportunities, working directly with participating businesses to determine availability, endorsement content and other needs.

“We have always considered business and corporate involvement a critical piece in the NIL puzzle for KTR and Rutgers,” said Jon Newman, president, Knights of the Raritan. “Partnerships like this important one with SCBP are crucial in helping to educate business leaders and owners about NIL and the return on investment that working with Rutgers student athletes can provide as they grow and promote their businesses to key target audiences. We hope other groups will join us as businesses see the benefit of working with these students.”