Last week, Haley and Hanna Cavinder said goodbye to college basketball, opting out of a fifth year of NCAA play after amassing millions of followers on social media and capitalizing accordingly through NIL. The twins said they were preparing instead to “start a new chapter in our lives,” and it is already becoming clear what that future holds.
Just eight days after their announcement, the former University of Miami guards struck a partnership with Jake Paul’s betting company, Betr—a deal that highlights their value beyond the NCAA as influencers in their own right.
The Cavinders, who raked in several million dollars in endorsement deals as two of college athletics most successful NIL case studies, agreed to a media pact with Betr Holdings, the umbrella company over both Betr Media and Betr Gaming. They will join the micro-betting company as “content creators” and creative directors in exchange for an undisclosed equity stake. Further financial details were not disclosed.
“Betr can and will leverage the rapidly growing Jake Paul and Betr Media audiences to make emerging talent even more famous than they already are, while also providing best-in-class content development, production, and media sales infrastructure—all while offering material cash and equity upside into Betr Holdings,” Joey Levy, Betr’s co-founder and CEO, said in a statement.
Paul—who has more than 60 million followers across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube—is an internet celebrity who parlayed his online stardom into a professional boxing career. The Cavinders have amassed more than 4.5 million followers on TikTok, a combined 1.5 million on Instagram and another 90,000 subscribers on YouTube, ranking them among the most followed college athletes.
With a well-established platform that is largely untethered to their athletic accomplishments—the twins started making TikToks in 2020 during the pandemic—Haley and Hanna are now poised to cash in on that popularity as more traditional influencers in a way that some of their college athlete peers are not. For stars that have platforms or followings because of their athletic feats, like Iowa’s Caitlin Clark or UConn’s Paige Bueckers, giving up an extra year of NIL earnings and exposure may not have made as much sense as the Cavinders’ early departure. Bueckers and Clark would be leaving to turn pro in a sport that pays comparatively small rookie salaries, while the Cavinders have already solidified a large enough following to translate financially elsewhere without needing another year on an NCAA stage.
The sisters had already begun making inroads in media beyond their social platforms. Now, Betr’s media division will become the exclusive home of the Cavinder’s Twin Talk podcast, which they launched on iHeartRadio in December 2022. The twins will also serve as key additions to the company’s on-camera talent roster, which includes Paul and UFC’s Bo Nickal. As such, they will help create sports content centered on and around women and make regular appearances on Paul’s show, Betr Media’s flagship franchise.
“Betr gives us the ability to accelerate the growth of The Cavinder Twins brand in a focused and truly authentic manner,” the Cavinders said. “We love sports, thrive on competition, and enjoy creating and bringing ideas to life. Betr truly makes The Cavinder Twins and our brand that much better and bigger.”
Paul and Levy launched Betr in August 2022, taking wagers on individual plays and events within games. The Miami-based sportsbook raised $50 million in funding, including investments from a number of prominent names such as NFL players Braxton Berrios, Dez Bryant, Ezekiel Elliot and Richard Sherman as well as rapper Travis Scott and San Francisco 49ers co-owner Mark Wan.
For their part, the Cavinders ranked among NIL’s top earners. If the duo had signed the contract while still playing or planning to use their final year of college eligibility, a deal with Betr would not have directly violated any law or rule. Florida’s NIL statute, which was substantially amended this year, does not prohibit NIL contracts with betting companies as some states and universities have. Neither does the NCAA’s interim NIL policy nor Miami’s NIL policy.
There could, however, have been questions around public perception given how much of college athletics continues to keep a distance from sports betting. Had the Cavinders still been playing, a deal with Betr may have required clearer lines in the sand. Instead, the current agreement allows them to partner with the entirety of Betr Holdings.
It is unclear how the media commitments will play out logistically as the Cavinder twins, who helped lead Miami to its first Elite Eight in program history last month after transferring from Fresno State, are also slated to soon begin training with the WWE in Orlando. In 2022, both were signed to WWE’s “Next In Line” NIL program, designed to recruit and train college athletes as future Superstars.
With assistance from Michael McCann.
