How to check whether an agent is actually registered, and what it means if they are not

Almost nobody does this. It takes five minutes and it is the cheapest protection available to an athlete.

The law is real, and it is uneven

The Uniform Law Commission wrote the Uniform Athlete Agents Act in 2000 and revised it in 2015. As of October 2026, 22 jurisdictions have adopted the revised version, versions of the original act remain controlling law in 19 states, and nine jurisdictions have no athlete-agent statute at all. Ohio and California never adopted either model and run their own systems.

So the first thing to understand is that there is no single national licence. An agent properly registered in one state may have no standing in yours, and the obligations accumulate rather than replace one another — an athlete who lives in one state, attends school in a second and signs in a third can have three bodies of law in play.

What registration is supposed to produce

Under the original act, an agent generally had to register with the state and disclose their training, experience, criminal history involving moral turpitude, any prior false or deceptive representations, and their licensing and disciplinary history. The agency contract had to state the services provided, who pays, how compensation is calculated and what expenses are reimbursable. Agent and athlete had to notify the athlete's school within 72 hours of signing or before the next scheduled event. The athlete had a 14-day right to cancel.

The revised act widened the net considerably. It reaches people who procure professional employment, give compensated financial or career advice, or manage an athlete's business affairs — which matters in a market now full of marketing representatives and "NIL advisers" who would not describe themselves as agents. It moved school notification earlier, to before an agent recruits an athlete at all. It extended certain rights to parents and guardians. And it gave athletes their own private right of action.

Two states went further in 2026. Louisiana's Act 895 expressly reaches compensated advice involving endorsement and NIL activity, requires a separate written disclosure for endorsement representation, and carries fines up to $100,000 per violation. Ohio now requires a state-provided form with prescribed warnings, bars contracts extending past intercollegiate eligibility, and generally voids arbitration provisions.

How to actually check

1. Ask directly, and ask for the number. "Are you registered as an athlete agent in this state?" An agent who is will answer in one sentence.
2. Check both states. Where the athlete lives and where the school is.
3. Verify it yourself. Some states publish searchable registration information. Others give less visibility. Where it is not public, the state office that administers the statute can usually confirm.
4. Confirm the school was notified. Compliance staff will know.
5. Check the contract contains what the statute requires. Services, compensation, expenses, and any required warnings.

If they are not registered

This is where it stops being paperwork. Where an agent has not complied, state law may allow the athlete to recover compensation already paid, recover attorneys' fees and costs, or avoid enforcement of the contract altogether. The remedies vary by statute, and this is exactly the question to put to a lawyer who represents you rather than to the agent.

It is not theoretical. In Williamson v. Prime Sports Marketing, the athlete's challenge to an agency agreement wiped out a $100 million counterclaim and produced a fee award of nearly $700,000.

The honest caveat

The problem in this market is not that there is no law. There is quite a lot of it. The problem is enforcement, and verification practices that are inconsistent from state to state. Which means the checking falls to you, and five minutes spent before signing is worth more than any amount of effort afterwards.

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Source: Colin J. Cloherty, Wiley Rein LLP, "Uniform violation — The state-law patchwork governing athlete agents in the NIL era," October 2, 2026.

This article is general educational information, not legal advice. Requirements differ by state and are changing quickly.