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The Statistician For Many Baseball Agents

Sometimes you have to spend money to make money.  This is often true when it comes to recruiting potential new clients, and also keeping existing talented clientèle.  As you probably already know, agents make very little off of a client’s first contract in any professional sport.  In baseball, an agent will only take a commission if the client’s contract is over the minimum salary threshold (this year’s minimum is $400,000).  Agents can really make nice commissions once their baseball clients become arbitration eligible.  This would be a time when it pays to pay.

One of the guys behind the scenes is a man named Marc Rubin.  Rubin is a co-owner of RayRubin Sports Analysts.  He does not only help in arbitration eligibility years, but is happy to provide insight in any contractual matter.  You know that given the proper tools, you can negotiate a good deal for your client.  Rubin provides the tools.  He has been a statistics professor at Southern New Hampshire University Graduate School of Business for over 25 years.  For many of those years, he has been hired as an independent contractor by agencies.

Rubin has contacted a lot of agents over the years, including yours truly.  He first reached out to me in February 2008 suggesting that he could be of service in providing detailed projections/analysis for unrepresented players that I might be soliciting.  While I have not hired Rubin to date, I could see that change in the future.  He has done a good job of staying in touch with me, and has quite a few solid testimonials from agents that I trust.

He recently sent me this article, written about him by his hometown paper.  He sure looks more like a statistician than your standard agent, but I guess that is a good thing!

By Darren Heitner

Darren Adam Heitner, Esq., is a preeminent sports attorney and the founder of Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., a Fort Lauderdale-based law firm specializing in sports law, contract negotiations, intellectual property, and arbitration. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2010 and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, magna cum laude, from the University of Florida in 2007, where he was named Valedictorian of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Admitted to practice in the state bars of Florida, New York, and the District of Columbia, as well as multiple federal courts, Darren also serves as a certified arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association.

As an adjunct professor, Darren imparts his expertise through teaching Sports Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) at the University of Miami School of Law in the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law LL.M. program. His scholarly contributions include authoring several books published by the American Bar Association, such as How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know, and numerous articles in prominent publications like Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and Above the Law. His thought leadership in NIL has earned him recognition as one of the foremost experts by The Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY, and On3, and he has been lauded as a “power player in NIL deals” by Action Network and a “top sports trademark attorney” by Sportico.

Darren’s passion for sports law led him to establish Sports Agent Blog on December 31, 2005, initially titled “I Want To Be A Sports Agent.” The platform, created as a New Year’s resolution, has grown into a cornerstone of the sports agency community, offering in-depth analysis of industry trends, legal disputes, and agent-player dynamics. His commitment to the field is further evidenced by his representation of numerous athletes and sports agents, as well as his prior role as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington, where he developed and taught a course on Sport Agency Management from 2011 to 2014.

Darren’s contributions have been recognized with prestigious honors, including the University of Florida’s 40 Under 40 Award, the University of Florida Levin College of Law’s Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, and designation as the best lawyer in Fort Lauderdale by Fort Lauderdale Magazine. He remains an active voice in the sports law community, sharing insights through his weekly NIL newsletter and his X posts, engaging a broad audience on legal developments in sports.

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