On Nov. 21, sophomore University of Maryland business students Tyler Koshar and Jake Esterson launched Shell Sports Management, an NIL marketing agency. Within the first two weeks of launch, Koshar and Esterson became an LLC, increased brand awareness, and had multiple athletes verbally sign with them.
“I played sports growing up, and at some point any athlete realizes that they won’t be able to keep playing onto the next level. When that time came for me all I wanted to do was be a sports agent and represent athletes,” Koshar said.
This fall, Koshar interned for an NIL sports agency, which further pushed him to get involved with the athletes at UMD. Koshar said after conducting research on the NIL landscape, he and Esterson decided to represent teams such as men’s lacrosse, soccer and women’s basketball.
Koshar and Esterson do most of their deals through personal relationships, and strive to be a brand that is recognized for it. “Our whole thing when we pitch to the athletes is we want to get to know them, what brands they like, what kind of people they are off the field as well as on the field and then try to work around it,” said Koshar.
Koshar also said they want to form personal relationships with the business as well, through face to face conversations and communication on what brands want through partnerships.
“When we talk about players, we don’t have a lot of experience in the past, so our whole thing is: we’re going to work our tail off for them. We’re going to work as hard as we can to make up for that gap we may have and make it not really a thing anymore.”, said Koshar.
The pair still has room to grow, as they are working towards becoming certified sports managers in the state of Maryland, but have had the chance to work with NIL agents on reviewing contracts. Koshar said that it was really important to get feedback and help from an NIL agent in ensuring that everything they do is by the book.
Even though the pair has just started, Koshar and Esterson have already started to represent four athletes through Shell Sports Management. So far, they represent UMD baseball players Paul Jones II and Ty Kaunas, as well as James Gardiner and AJ Larkin from the UMD men’s lacrosse team.
“I’m super proud of our signing of 4 amazing athletes in this quick amount of time, and look forward to getting them all some deals,” Esterson said. “The hope is to get a few players to stick with us and eventually turn more towards the contractual side rather than the marketing side as we progress.”