Winners Alliance, the commercial arm of the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), the breakaway tennis union founded by Novak Djokovic, has announced a commercial partnership with the EuroLeague Players Association (ELPA).
Under the agreement, Winners Alliance will manage the commercial rights of more than 300 professional basketball players competing in the EuroLeague club competition.
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The two parties claim the tie-up “represents a historic first in collective commercial rights management for EuroLeague players.”
Winners Alliance will initially advise ELPA leadership on organizing and aggregating players’ group commercial rights.
It will additionally consult with ELPA, which was founded in 2018, on its collective bargaining efforts and strategies to prevent unauthorized use of players’ names, images, and likenesses.
Boštjan Nachbar, ELPA managing director, said: “The team at Winners Alliance has unmatched experience in understanding and maximizing the value of athlete rights on a global scale.
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By GlobalData“They have a proven track-record from working with the most prestigious player associations in the world. With their expertise, we are eager to explore and create new, meaningful, and comprehensive opportunities for our players. This is a crucial step for ELPA in safeguarding and expanding IP rights and opportunities of our members.
“Our cooperation will help players become more visible and will ultimately benefit the growth and potential of EuroLeague and basketball in general.”
Eric Winston, president of Winners Alliance, added: “This partnership between Winners Alliance and ELPA is truly groundbreaking. It comes from our shared goal of empowering athletes and looking out for their best interests by maximizing their value throughout their careers and beyond.
“Our collaboration with ELPA is all about tapping into opportunities available to their players and changing the game for how athlete rights are handled globally.
“Winners Alliance remains committed to unlocking athlete potential and pioneering innovative initiatives across global sports, and EuroLeague players in particular have tremendous potential to capitalize on their commercial rights.”
Winners Alliance recently agreed a deal to manage select group commercial rights for the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association players’ union.
The group was founded in August 2022 to generate and maximize off-the-court commercial opportunities for players and their agents. It is seeking to emulate player organizations from other sports in generating new revenues for players, with trading cards, other collectibles, and video among its stated first targets.
The for-profit arm initially secured $26 million in new funding from Pershing Square Foundation, led by billionaire Bill Ackman, as well as private equity firm Prysm Capital and former NFL Players Inc. president Ahmad Nassar, who was the executive director and chief executive of Winners Alliance at the time.
Since then, Winners Alliance said it has secured more than $10 million incremental value for PTPA tennis players in its first year through collective licensing and marketing agreements with Fanatics and subsidiary Topps, TUMI, La Rosche-Posay, Heineken, CSM, Zoomph, and Grey Goose.
Read: PTPA: Tennis’ breakaway union is looking to revolutionize player representation.
