By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com
Since the NCAA lifted its ban on name, image and likeness (NIL) deals in 2021, the industry has grown to be worth nearly $1.67 billion, according to a report from Opendorse, a leading NIL marketplace and technology company. But, it’s far from a fair playing field.
Division I men’s basketball and football players earn the bulk of NIL dollars, while athletes in smaller programs or less visible sports struggle to benefit.
To close that gap, Morgan State University (MSU) alumnus Peter Iwuh launched Tykoon AI, an NIL platform designed to support underrepresented student athletes with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).
“There’s a huge need for representation for student athletes who look like myself,” said Iwuh. “There’s a huge, untapped market of underserved student athletes who are being looked over and have amazing talents and stories, but the resources are not available.”
Before launching Tykoon AI, Iwuh spent two years running Tykoon Sports, the first Black-owned NIL marketing agency. Through working with athletes, he noticed that many were focused on landing brand deals but weren’t developing their own personal brands outside of their sport.
Tykoon AI collects insights about athletes’ lives both on and off the court, or field, to help them tell their stories, create content and grow their social presence. The platform also connects athletes with brand deals and sponsorships and helps them to create and promote their own merchandise.
With checklist and reminder features, Tykoon AI keeps athletes accountable and on track with their NIL goals.
“Our AI evaluates several key data points using engagement trends, interests, audience demographics, posting consistency and even sentiment around the athlete’s content,” said Omogbolade Ajayi, chief technology officer (CTO) of Tykoon AI. “It then uses those insights to identify what type of content performs best for that athlete, which brands align with their image, and how they can grow their digital presence more effectively.”
Powered by machine learning, Tykoon AI becomes smarter the more athletes use it, offering increasingly personalized recommendations for content creation and brand building. It also features built-in compliance management tools to ensure athletes abide by all NIL regulations.
As the platform relies on athletes’ personal information, data security and privacy are top priorities for Tykoon AI. Ajayi said the app uses Amazon Web Services, which provides enterprise-level security, encryption and compliance standards.
“Users have full control over their data, they can see what’s collected, how it’s used and manage their privacy settings at any time,” said Ajayi. “We believe trust is earned and that starts with protecting the very people our platform is designed to empower.”
Tykoon AI was not only created to democratize the NIL landscape, it was designed to be a one-stop shop for athletes with limited access to the resources they need to cultivate their brand, secure partnerships and monetize their personal image.
Iwuh believes it has the power to alter the future of college sports.
“There’s a lot of platforms that support athletes in one specific aspect. You have platforms that focus specifically on apparel or on partnerships,” Iwuh. “Our platform is here to centralize all of those things.”
Tykoon AI is available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
