Washington Athletics and Learfield’s Huskies Sports Properties have announced a long-term partnership renewal, ensuring that Learfield remains the university’s exclusive multimedia rights partner through a multi-year agreement. Learfield has facilitated corporate and multimedia rights partnerships for Washington since 2006.
The new agreement not only extends the current partnership but also enables Washington to leverage Learfield’s proprietary Fanbase data solution, original content services from Learfield Studios, and NIL solutions for student-athletes. By incorporating Learfield’s innovative data, digital media, content, and NIL capabilities, Washington plans to unlock new brand partner programs and create more engagement with Husky fans.
“We are excited to continue our partnership with Learfield for another decade,” said University of Washington Director of Athletics Pat Chun. “We look forward to the opportunities to partner and collaborate with Learfield to enhance the Husky fan experience, foster innovation, and advance our shared business goals in an ever-evolving college athletics landscape.”
Washington Athletics currently deliveres NIL programs and opportunities to its student-athletes through its Dawgs Unleashed division. With the renewed partnership, Washington will use Learfield’s technology, data, and NIL resources to connect brands with UW student-athletes. Dawgs Unleashed has already collaborated with Learfield on several innovative NIL campaigns featuring UW student-athletes, including the “University of Warcraft” campaign with Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft.
Under this new agreement, Dawgs Unleashed will gain access to added resources, including a new Learfield NIL-dedicated business development manager on-site to generate additional NIL revenue, execute influencer marketing services, and develop brand partnerships. Through real NIL dealmaking, Learfield and Dawgs Unleashed plan on delivering student-athlete content and storytelling opportunities across the Seattle area, regionally, and nationally.
“We are incredibly proud to extend our long-term partnership with Washington, one of the marquee programs in college athletics,” said Kim Damron, president of Learfield Sports Properties. “We are committed to delivering Pat Chun and his team excellence in revenue generation and innovative fan engagement solutions. Our best-in-class services, resources, and support perfectly match Washington’s current and future needs, including delivering high-value local and national partner programs activated by Huskies Sports Properties.”
Washington will also tap into new video content and digital storytelling solutions powered by Learfield Studios. These new on-campus resources will create unique short-form and episodic video content for Huskies Athletics and deliver original NIL stories for student-athletes.
Learfield social content specialists will help promote and distribute new student-athlete content, reaching Husky fans through social media programming throughout the year.
Washington continues to utilize Learfield’s integrated enterprise solutions to engage fans and drive revenue growth. These divisions include Learfield’s Sports Properties flagship multimedia rights services, ticketing, website and app platforms, outbound ticket sales, and merchandise licensing. By combining these solutions with data-driven insights, Washington has seen business growth over the past year, adding new partnerships, increasing fan engagement, selling record-high group ticket sales, and growing its licensed merchandise royalties.
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