FanCave FAQ

FanCave FAQ

3/11/2024


Last Updated: 05/29/2024

About FanCave

What is FanCave?

  • FanCave is the first, online, public collective. We help recruits understand their fair market NIL value, and include fans in the recruitment process.

How does FanCave work?

  • Recruits use FanCave to assess their market value across fanbases—a key decision factor in the recruitment process. Fans can influence this data by interacting with their top prospects on FanCave and become the #1 fanbase.
  • This data is derived from NILScore, a priority algorithm that monitors & quantifies fan engagement on FanCave.
  • An athlete’s NILScore is the fair market value metric that FanCave leverages to create NIL deals with athletes—regardless of enrolled university—after they sign their NLI.

What are coins?

  • Coins are a virtual good fans can buy on FanCave that give you the power to support athletes and recruits, boost scores (like NILScore), get attention via chats and reacts, get recognition through badges and leaderboards, and more.
  • For the first time, you can make your fandom heard during top prospects’ recruitment process, by increasing your teams’ NILScore.
  • Coins redeemed to boost an Athlete/Recruit’s NILScore (i) represent a transaction between the user and FanCave, not user-to-user, and (ii) are final and non-refundable.
  • See full coin, NILScore, and ‘FanCave NIL Deal’ terms here

What is NILScore?

  • NILScore is FanCave’s proprietary fan engagement data to derive an athlete’s fair market value. Fans boost the NILScore of recruits and rise the leaderboard the more they engage & support recruits.
  • This influences both the NILScore data for their fanbase, as well as the recruit’s overall NILScore.

Is this pay for play? Is this legal?

  • FanCave is not pay for play, and is legal. FanCave is fully compliant to NCAA standards, state law, and even the latest House v. NCAA settlement agreements.
  • Fans redeem coins to celebrate a recruit’s name, image, and likeness (NIL). Coins redeemed to boost an athlete’s NILScore are final and non-refundable. An athlete’s NILScore is the fair market value metric that FanCave leverages to create NIL deals with athletes—regardless of enrolled university—after they sign their NLI.
  • Additionally, FanCave is financially-backed by Y Combinator (backers of Reddit, Twitch, etc) and is partnered with publicnil.org, whose mission is to build sustainable NIL standards.

Do you work with athletic departments or collectives?

  • FanCave is an independent entity that partners directly with athletes and fans, rather than specific institutions.
  • While we do ensure compliance with NCAA and per-university standards, remaining independent allows FanCave to prioritize building an unbiased and unrestricted platform that is institution-agnostic.

How does FanCave protect athletes?

  • Balancing cutting-edge ways for athletes to maximize and understand their NIL value—while ensuring athlete safety and eligibility—is our top priority.
  • Additionally, FanCave is partnered with publicnil.org, whose mission is to build sustainable NIL standards.

How is FanCave different than a collective?

  • Traditional ‘private collectives’ pool funds from donors and have full private jurisdiction over the funds donated—usually resulting in closed-door operations. Compensation is then given to athletes through NIL contracts that are often predatory in nature (NDAs, payback clauses, forced exclusive NIL rights, etc).
  • FanCave is an online, unbiased, ‘public collective’—where fans interact with recruits to make their fandom heard, and athlete payouts are derived from fair market value data via NILScore.

What does a verified athlete profile mean?

  • Fans can boost NILScore for any athlete on the FanCave platform.
  • An athlete’s profile must be verified to officially accept The FanCave NIL Deal, which includes claiming their account and performing an identification-check. Only athlete accounts can receive a verification ‘checkmark’ on their profile.
  • Full Athlete Payouts and FanCave NIL Deal terms can be found here

How FanCave Works

Have more questions?

👋 Message us at hello@fancave.me