Emerging platforms that let athletes sell shares of their future earnings for upfront cash are drawing scrutiny from financial advisors, who warn that modest-sounding percentages can translate into uncapped long-term obligations that a player could regret.
Ronny Cruz, a 20-year-old infield prospect for the Washington Nationals, recently became the first athlete to sign with Agentiq. According to Agentiq’s SEC filing, the startup will pay $1.2 million to Cruz in exchange for up to 10% of his future on-field earnings in both the minor and major leagues. Agentiq is offering up to 12,900 shares in Cruz’s earnings at $100 each to be sold to its network of investors and sports fans.
Kirk Loerwald, a partner at SAX Wealth Advisors who leads the New Jersey-based RIA’s Athletes & Artists division, refers to this contact scenario as “the worst type of risk” for an athlete to take on.
“I am not a fan of these type of deals because of the unlimited risk,” said Loerwald. “A future percentage may sound modest to a young athlete who has not yet received a major professional paycheck. But if that athlete eventually earns $50 million, the cost is $5 million. At $100 million, it is $10 million. There is generally no corresponding cap on how profitable the transaction can become for the investor.”
Cruz, a native of the Dominican Republic, is ranked at No. 78 prospect in baseball by MLB.com, and he received a $620,000 signing bonus in 2024 after being drafted in the third round by the Chicago Cubs. Cruz currently plays for the High-A Wilmington Blue Rocks, where minimum annual salaries are $27,940, according to Baseball America.
“It's less about giving away 10% of future upside and more about locking in a floor,” says Ben Davidson, associate VP and head of the sports & entertainment division at Houston-based RIA Americana Partners. “Professional sports leave almost no margin for error, especially early in a career, and the temptation to lock in cash now is real. Injury doesn't discriminate, and you never know which step on the field is your last. So, there's a legitimate case for taking a foundation off the table early.”
Agentiq was formed in 2025 by Zach Kurtz, a former Division I baseball player who previously founded baseball equipment company LV Lumber Bats. Other firms operating within the space of offering upfront cash to athletes in exchange for slices of their career earnings include X10 Capital, Finlete, Vestible, Working Capital Partners, and Big League Advance. The platforms vary in structure and fees, and often additionally offer training and marketing support to young athletes.
Jon Hayes, a sports-focused advisor at MAI Capital Management, says his firm advised an NBA player client when he was considering an offer to sell part of his future earnings for upfront cash. The player did not end up accepting the offer.
“I thought given his set of circumstances and given the offer that was made, it was a fair proposal. The player did not end up doing it, which is fine. We're a couple years removed now from that process,” said Hayes. “The way it's played out since the decision was made is it looks at this point like him taking the deal would have been prudent, but there's still hopefully a lot of his career left, and it remains to be seen.”
Beyond individual financial situations, Hayes stresses the “psychic value” advisors should discuss with athlete clients and their agents as they contemplate selling stakes in their future earnings.
“Is the player anxious about something in their personal financial situation that would be relieved by taking one of these offers? Are they going to play freer now that they've got a little bit of a safety net under them?” said Hayes. “The concern would be the opposite of that — do they lose motivation now that there's some financial security that has been provided to them?”
Fernando Tatis Jr, who in 2021 signed a $340 million contract extension with the San Diego Padres, is the most high-profile example of athletes regretting their decisions to sell shares of their future earnings. Tatis lost his 2025 lawsuit against Big League Advance, which was his attempt to void the future earnings contract he signed as a 17-year-old prospect that gave him $2 million up front in exchange for 10% of future earnings.
“There are parallels with business owners selling equity to meet short-term cash needs. The difference is that an entrepreneur is selling an interest in a separable business asset,” said Loerwald. “An athlete is selling a claim on his own future labor and performance. That makes the decision unusually personal and difficult to reverse. And often times credit is used instead of equity because the business owner understands the upside.”
Agentiq and its broker-dealer, Andes Capital, take a handful of fees associated with its public offering for Cruz. Agentiq will receive a 4% negotiation fee and 2.5% annual maintenance fee, while Andes gets 1% of gross proceeds as a broker fee. By tying their on-field performance to investors, advisors worry of visceral outsider reactions athletes expose themselves to.
“I'm going to be concerned about what my player is subjecting himself to with an arrangement like this that now has a public backing of the player,” said Hayes. “If he is in a slump, if he has a bad night, if he gets hurt—what's he going to be subjecting himself to both in real time at the games and then outside when he's off the field and in social media. That would concern me.”
Davidson, who before becoming a financial advisor played Division I soccer at the University of South Carolina and UNC Wilmington, compared the dynamics of investing in future athlete earnings to music royalties in the entertainment space. He described a few changes he’d like to see to existing models for investing in athlete earnings for consideration of clients at Americana Partners.
“What we'd like to see evolve is a few things. More standardized disclosure so families and agents can actually compare offers side by side,” said Davidson.“Better alignment between the platform and the athlete, so the incentive isn't just to sign volume but to genuinely underwrite talent well. And clearer regulatory treatment, since these instruments currently sit somewhere between securities law, name-image-likeness rules, and personal contract law.”
Loerwald says he’d like contracts to adopt more athlete protections, including a firm cap on the total amount an investor can receive as well as clearly stated buyout or prepayment formulas.
“Every proposal should show the athlete, in large print, what the transaction costs if career earnings reach $10 million, $50 million, $100 million or $250 million. It should also calculate the investor's implied return under each scenario,” said Loerwald. “Without those illustrations, describing the transaction only as 'selling 10%' understates its potential economic impact. These are all disclosures that are made in any credit deal I have seen using the contract or future earnings of an athlete.”
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