THE ONLY CONSTANT: CHANGE

From torts to sports

Richard Rosenblatt (JD 1994) recruits Ted Russell (JD 1994) to team up on Autograph, a new venture bringing Web3 to the world of entertainment and sports

By Leslie Ridgeway

Richard Rosenblatt, co-founder of the NFT platform Autograph. Two USC Gould School of Law classmates have joined forces on a sports NFT platform that elevates fan engagement for sports stars like champion quarterback Tom Brady, Olympic standout Simone Biles and hockey legend Wayne Gretzky to a new level.

Innovative tech entrepreneur Richard Rosenblatt (JD 1994), co-founder of Autograph, a groundbreaking NFT platform launched in 2021, recruited Ted Russell (JD 1994), former executive vice president for business affairs at Twentieth Century Fox, as the platform’s chief operating officer and chief business officer.

Rosenblatt says the idea for Autograph germinated while he was with his family in Cabo San Lucas in the early days of the pandemic. He and his son Dillon, a graduate of USC’s Iovine and Young Academy and an entrepreneur, got to talking about Web3 and NFTs — non-fungible tokens that fans trade and sell — in the sports and entertainment spheres. Rosenblatt enlisted long-time friend Brady as co-founder and co-chairman.

“We wanted to create something unique in the space,” Rosenblatt says. “The analogy is baseball cards. They were the most treasured thing I owned as a kid. And now, in digital form you can collect NFTs and have them signed. Other platforms were focused on leagues, but we started by focusing on individual players and building their personality online. We keep expanding and just announced that we are the exclusive NFT partner of the PGA.”

Autograph enriches the fan experience by offering access to special NFT drops and engagement opportunities like meetups and online Q&A sessions. The platform holds exclusive agreements with a substantial roster of entertainment brands and individual athletes, distinguishing it within the NFT space. The platform is guided by an advisory board of people Rosenblatt has known for years, including golf superstar Tiger Woods, award-winning actress and producer Eva Longoria Baston and skateboarding icon Tony Hawk. Dillon leads the company as CEO and co-founder.