Duke, UNC basketball stars team up for endorsement deal for NC-based company
Posted January 5, 2023 11:52 a.m. EST
Updated January 6, 2023 8:57 a.m. EST
North Carolina and Duke basketball stars are putting aside their on-court rivalry to team up as endorsers for — and equity shareholders in — a sports performance supplement company.
North Carolina center Armando Bacot and Duke guard Jeremy Roach, who helped their teams to the Final Four last year, will appear together in ads for BOA Ignite, a new sports energy aerosol from Raleigh-based BOA Nutrition. The company released a 30-second digital ad featuring the pair in BOA jerseys — light blue for Bacot, dark blue and white for Roach — on Thursday morning.
“Who ya got?” the commercial asks over closeups of Bacot and Roach.
BOA Nutrition previously released BOA Endure, a rapid sodium replenishment product. It’s intended to help athletes quickly rehydrate. It is the official endurance salt of IRONMAN North America.
The players' deals include cash and incentive compensation based on sales and performance, according to BOA chief executive John Prichett. The deals run through the end of the academic year, but it could be extended. Each player will receive about 0.5% of the company and the right to invest in the company at a discounted rate.
The total compensation for each player is valued at between $150,000 and $250,000 based on the current valuation of the company, Prichett said.
NC State football player Shyheim Battle recently signed a multiyear endorsement deal with Obsesh, an engagement platform for athletes, that included an equity deal, a first for an NC State athlete.
The NCAA changed its rules around name, image and likeness in 2021, allowing players to profit from endorsement deals. Bacot has been a big beneficiary of the rule change, signing deals with numerous companies and acting in a television show. His ability to make money while playing college basketball played a role in returning to UNC for his senior season.
Roach said in a statement that some of his teammates used the BOA Endure product last season. Former Duke star Paolo Banchero, the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, reportedly used the product to help with cramping issues during his time with the Blue Devils. BOA has relationships with other Division I schools, including Georgia, Clemson and Texas A&M, according to a spokesman.
Former Duke basketball player Wendell Moore, Jr., now in the NBA, also endorses the company and has equity through stock options, according to BOA.
Bacot and Roach are represented by California-based marketing firms.
The BOA products are sprayed into the mouth for two seconds. The company says Endure can deliver the same amount of sodium in that two-second spray as from a 12-ounce sports drink. The product was developed with help from the sports medicine department at Duke, according to a company spokesman.
The BOA Ignite product contains B vitamins, carbohydrates, caffeine and electrolytes and is seen as a replacement for energy gels used by athletes. In the commercial, it is billed as "the world's first oral aerosol."
On its website, BOA says to keep the products out of the reach of children and that athletes under the age of 18 years old should have adult supervision while using the products. BOA Nutrition products have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not approved drug products, according to its website.
