BACKPANINI AMERICA NAMED THE OFFICIAL TRADING CARD PARTNER OF THE TEXAS ONE FUND
First-of-Its-Kind Partnership to Provide NIL Opportunities for University of Texas Athletes
Irving, TX – September 12, 2024 – Panini America, the world’s largest sports and entertainment collectibles company, announced today an exclusive, multi-year agreement with the Texas One Fund, the official NIL collective for the University of Texas.
In what represents a new level of partnership for the Texas One Fund, Panini is the Official Trading Card Partner for the organization.
Panini recently introduced Panini College, a dedicated NIL platform that enables all athletes at a partner university to have their own Panini trading card under the Panini NIL brand. The platform – www.college.paniniamerica.net – has initially launched with football and volleyball athletes, and the University of Texas is one of three inaugural partner schools along with Ohio State University and the University of Nebraska.
The Texas One Fund and Panini will collaborate on engaging University of Texas athletes and teams to join the Panini College platform, where athletes will have the opportunity to receive compensation based on trading card sales. In addition to the College platform, Panini will also work to develop University of Texas collegiate NIL trading card products, provide co-branded marketing support for athletes around the relevant trading card sets and the Texas One Fund, and host select card signing events featuring Texas athletes.
“As a former student-athlete at the University of Texas, I’m thrilled to bring together two storied sports entities to empower student-athletes — past, present, and future — at Texas and beyond,” said Chris Ogbonnaya, Vice President, NIL Relations for Panini America and former Longhorn and NFL running back. “The NIL space is ever-changing and evolving, but is still in its early stages, and Panini is primed to help student-athletes everywhere seize this opportunity. Our new Panini College platform is an important example of that and will serve as a hub for student-athletes to engage with NIL opportunities at their respective schools.”
The Panini College platform – which will expand to additional partner schools and sports throughout the country over the next few months – and the partnership with the Texas One Fund are the latest extensions of Panini’s commanding presence in the collegiate NIL space. Panini currently has exclusive partnerships with multiple collegiate athletes, including Texas’ Quinn Ewers, Tre Johnson and Arch Manning, and also offers several collegiate-focused products.
“The partnership with Panini presents another best-in-class NIL opportunity for the student-athletes we serve at The University of Texas through the Texas One Fund,” said Patrick “Wheels” Smith, President of Texas One Fund. “We could not be more excited to work with Panini to bring our Texas athletes exclusive one-of-a-kind opportunities across a multitude of sports programs.”
About Panini America
Panini America is a subsidiary of The Panini Group, established over 60 years ago in Modena, Italy with subsidiaries throughout Europe, Latin America and the United States. Panini is the world leader in officially licensed collectibles and is the most significant publisher of collectibles in the U.S., with official licenses for NFL, NFLPA, NBA, NBPA, NASCAR, FIFA, LIV Golf, WWE, the Professional Fighters League, College, Disney, and other key properties from many other licensors. Panini is also the exclusive trading card and sticker partner of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Elite 11 and Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc.
Panini has distribution channels in more than 150 countries and employs a staff of over 1,200. For more information visit us at www.paniniamerica.net, www.paninigroup.com or
http://blog.paniniamerica.net/. You can also follow Panini America on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
About Texas One Fund
The Texas One Fund is the premier NIL collective providing opportunities for student athletes at Texas. Texas One Fund, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization created to connect student-athletes to utilize their NIL to promote local nonprofits. TX 1 Fund, LLC is the corporate extension of the Texas One Fund and collaborates with businesses to provide corporate opportunities for Texas athletes.
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CONTACTS:
Holden Hill, Taylor Strategy
