Professional Leagues & Teams
Manage merchandising and sponsorship contracts at scale
Challenges Facing Licensees and Licensors in the Sports Industry
The unprecedented growth of global fan bases, athlete endorsements, and media coverage has drastically increased licensing opportunities for both established and emerging sports. Each deal—whether for apparel, video clips, or branded merchandise—comes with its own set of rights, restrictions, and royalty terms that must be strictly enforced to protect brand value and revenue. Without centralized visibility, sports brands risk unauthorized usage, missed royalty payments, and compliance breaches.
In addition, licensors need to continually monitor websites, social media, and ecommerce marketplaces to ensure brand guidelines are being followed and unauthorized or counterfeit products are swiftly addressed.
Even the most prominent sports brands often struggle with:
- Fragmented systems for managing licensing rights and athlete IP
- Lost revenue from unlicensed merchandise or media use
- Delayed or inaccurate royalty calculations or payments
- Tracking brand usage across digital platforms
- Ensuring brand compliance across sponsors, licensees, and global partners
To harness the full potential of licensing, sports organizations must adopt technology that automates licensing workflows, tracks usage, and provides visibility at scale.
How FADEL Empowers the Sports Industry
FADEL streamlines how sports leagues, teams, and athletes manage rights, royalties, and brand compliance with automation and real-time visibility.
Centralized Rights Management with IPM Suite
- Track athlete, team, and league rights by geography, category, and media channel
- Validate usage pre-distribution to prevent unauthorized merchandise and content
- Optimize sponsorship, media, and merchandising opportunities
Automated Royalty & Revenue Management
- Automate royalty calculations for merchandise, endorsements, and partnerships
- Manage complex terms for tiered payments, advances, and multi-party splits
- Deliver real-time financial reporting for transparency and compliance
Brand Compliance Oversight
- Monitor brand usage across websites, social media, and ecommerce channels
- Receive notifications of licensing violations
- Reduce unauthorized and counterfeit sales
Workflow Automation & Governance
- Digitize contract approvals and licensing workflows
- Ensure audit-ready tracking and reporting
- Maintain global consistency across multi-market deals
AI-Powered Analytics
- Gain insights into your highest-performing properties to refine strategies
- Maximize revenue during playoffs and peak seasons
- Generate reports and defend audits
Built for Every Corner of the Sports Industry
Athlete Management & Endorsements
Protect athlete image rights, automate royalty payments, and ensure brand compliance
Sports Merchandising & Licensing
Oversee multi-category licensing programs (apparel, collectibles, video games, etc.)
Esports & Digital Platforms
Govern global digital rights, streaming usage, and sponsorship activations
Why Industry Leaders Choose FADEL
Since 2003, FADEL has been at the forefront of rights and royalty management, empowering the world’s largest licensors and licensees to transform the way they manage intellectual property. Licensors monetizing brand assets as well as licensees leveraging those assets use FADEL’s AI-enhanced solutions to automate complex processes, drive operational efficiency, and unlock new revenue opportunities.
Our clients experience:
- 360° oversight of rights, royalties, and brand compliance
- Proven scalability across global leagues, teams, and merchandise categories
- Faster royalty cycles and reduced manual errors
- Increased IP protection and contractual enforcement
IPM Suite
For midmarket to enterprise licensors and licensees. Monetize sports IP with all the tools necessary for licensing management.
LicenSee
Designed specifically for small to midmarket licensees to automate royalty calculations, generate licensor-specific reports, and provide an audit trail.
Brand Vision
Enforce content compliance and uncover unauthorized merchandise with AI-powered content tracking.
FAQs About Rights and Licensing in Sports
IPM Suite’s features empower sports licensors to manage licensing from end to end, including product approvals, contracts, rights and royalties, accounting, and forecasting.
Yes. FADEL monitors licensee usage and financial reporting to ensure compliance with contractual terms. IPM Suite flags discrepancies in royalty payments.
FADEL automates royalty calculations and payments based on usage data, contracts, and performance metrics. This ensures accurate, timely payouts to athletes and transparency for all stakeholders.
Yes. FADEL’s cloud-based platform can easily handle both traditional and digital sports frameworks, with flexible tools to manage complex rights and royalty structures.
Yes. Brand Vision’s content tracking capabilities monitor websites, social media, and ecommerce platforms. This helps brands identify unauthorized merchandise and take steps to remediate infringements.