CAA 86 (A). Boras 82 (A). WME 78 (B). Klutch 74 (B). Boras Corporation 82 (A).
The sports agent business runs on relationships, reputation, and information asymmetry. AI engines are collapsing all three. When a college athlete asks ChatGPT "who is the best sports agent," the answer reshapes the consideration set before a single phone call is made. When a brand asks Perplexity "which agency represents [athlete]," the answer either confirms the relationship or exposes a gap in the agent's public profile.
This study measures which sports agencies and individual agents the AI engines cite across five sports, three engines, and 40 buyer-intent prompts. The finding: deal volume is not Citation Share. The agents the engines name first are the ones with the deepest public narrative, not necessarily the ones with the most clients or the highest commission revenue.
See also: Citation Share: The KPI Behind GEO · How GEO Works · NFL Owners Reputation Index 2026 · Sports Betting & Gaming AI Visibility Index
Executive Summary
CAA 86 (A). Boras Corp 82 (A). WME 78 (B). Klutch 74 (B). Roc Nation 68 (C).
The dual index, agencies AND individual agents, reveals the structural dynamic: in the chatbox, the agent IS the brand. Scott Boras (88) outscores every multi-sport conglomerate. Rich Paul (82) exceeds his own agency Klutch (74) by 8 points. Remove Paul and LeBron from the entity graph and Klutch drops to an estimated 42 (D).
Audience: Sports agents, athletes evaluating representation, brand marketers, sports media, entertainment lawyers, NIL advisors, and anyone whose business depends on knowing who represents whom.
Public Relations Agency | Media, Marketing and AI SearchTalk to 5Winfo@5wpr.com
15 Publishable Findings
- CAA is the most-cited sports agency across all three engines, named first on 8 of 10 "best sports agency" queries.
- Boras Corporation scores 82 (A), higher than WME, Klutch, and Roc Nation, because Scott Boras is the single most-cited individual sports agent in the AI engines.
- Klutch Sports' Citation Share is driven almost entirely by Rich Paul and LeBron James. Remove those two entities and Klutch drops from 74 (B) to an estimated 42 (D).
- Asked "who is the best NFL agent," the engines name Drew Rosenhaus and Tom Condon more often than any agency.
- Asked "who is the best NBA agent," the engines name Rich Paul first on 2 of 3 engines.
- Asked "who represents [specific athlete]," the engines are correct ~72% for top-100 athletes and ~34% for athletes ranked 101-500.
- Roc Nation Sports scores 68 (C), below Klutch, because the engines primarily retrieve Roc Nation's music narrative, not its sports division.
- Perplexity is the most accurate engine on "who represents" queries (78% accuracy). ChatGPT 68%. Gemini 62%.
- The engines cannot reliably distinguish marketing agent vs. contract agent.
- Baseball agents have the highest individual Citation Share of any sport, public salary arbitration creates the deepest citation archive.
- Soccer agents are the lowest-cited in U.S. engines. Jorge Mendes scores below 30 on English-language queries.
- NIL agents and advisors are almost entirely invisible. The $1.17B category has zero citation presence.
- WME's sports division is cited below its entertainment division on every query.
- Wasserman is the most-cited agency NOT in the top 5, scoring 56 (C-), driven by Olympics and soccer.
- Asked "how much do sports agents make," the engines cite BLS and Glassdoor, not industry-specific data.
Methodology. 40 sports-agent-specific prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. June 2026 test window. Five categories: agency recommendation (10), individual agent identification (10), "who represents [athlete]" (10), sport-specific (6), compensation (4). Five sports: NFL, NBA, MLB, soccer, Olympic/multi-sport. Dual-rater scoring, 91% inter-rater agreement. Representation accuracy verified against Forbes Sports Money list, league agent registries, and agency press releases. Citation Share Score = citation frequency (60%) + cross-engine breadth (40%).
CAA Leads. Boras Is the Only Solo Shop in the A Tier.
| Rank | Agency | Citation Share | Grade | Engines | Strongest Sport |
|---|
| 1 | CAA | 86 | A | ChatGPT · Perplexity · Gemini | Multi-sport, NFL, NBA |
| 2 | Boras Corporation | 82 | A | ChatGPT · Perplexity · Gemini | MLB (exclusively) |
| 3 | WME | 78 | B | ChatGPT · Perplexity · Gemini | Multi-sport, UFC |
| 4 | Klutch Sports | 74 | B | ChatGPT · Perplexity · Gemini | NBA |
| 5 | Roc Nation Sports | 68 | C | ChatGPT · Perplexity | NFL, boxing |
| 6 | Wasserman | 56 | C- | ChatGPT · Perplexity | Olympics, soccer |
| 7 | Octagon | 50 | C- | ChatGPT · Perplexity | Olympics, endorsements |
| 8 | Excel Sports | 44 | D | ChatGPT | Golf, NBA |
| 9 | Rosenhaus Sports | 42 | D | ChatGPT · Perplexity | NFL |
| 10 | Athletes First | 38 | D | ChatGPT | NFL |
Boras 88, Paul 82: The Agent Outscores the Agency
| Rank | Agent | Score | Agency | Sport | Why They're Cited |
|---|
| 1 | Scott Boras | 88 | Boras Corp | MLB | $3B+ in career contracts. Public persona. Named in every free-agency story. |
| 2 | Rich Paul | 82 | Klutch Sports | NBA | LeBron connection. Memoir. Adele. UTA partnership. Cultural narrative. |
| 3 | Drew Rosenhaus | 72 | Rosenhaus Sports | NFL | 500+ NFL contracts. HBO Hard Knocks. Longest-tenured super-agent. |
| 4 | Ari Emanuel | 68 | WME/Endeavor | Multi | Endeavor CEO. UFC ownership. Ari Gold inspiration. IPO narrative. |
| 5 | Tom Condon | 62 | CAA Football | NFL | Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Drew Brees. |
| 6 | Casey Wasserman | 56 | Wasserman | Multi | LA 2028 Olympics chair lifts the agency citation. |
| 7 | Jay-Z | 54 | Roc Nation | Multi | Engines cite Jay-Z the artist more than Roc Nation the agency. |
| 8 | Todd France | 48 | CAA Football | NFL | Current top NFL draft agent. Patrick Mahomes. |
| 9 | Jeff Schwartz | 44 | Excel Sports | NBA | Kevin Durant's former agent. |
| 10 | David Mulugheta | 40 | Athletes First | NFL | Deshaun Watson, Jalen Ramsey. Highest active NFL values. |
Three Records This Index Set
Highest Individual Agent Citation: Scott Boras, 88
Boras is the only individual agent who outscores the multi-sport conglomerates. His Citation Share (88) exceeds CAA (86), WME (78), and every other agency. $3B+ in career contracts, public salary arbitration advocacy, annual Winter Meetings theatrics, 40-year narrative arc. One person with a deep public narrative outranks an entire institutional brand in the chatbox.
Biggest Gap Between Agent and Agency: Rich Paul (82) vs. Klutch (74)
Rich Paul's personal citation share exceeds his own agency's by 8 points. The LeBron connection, the memoir, the Adele relationship, the UTA partnership. Remove Paul and LeBron and Klutch drops to an estimated 42 (D). Klutch is a one-entity agency in the chatbox.
Biggest Miss: NIL Agents — Invisible
The NIL advisory category, estimated at $1.17B in 2025, has zero citation presence. Asked "best NIL agent," the engines return generic articles. The fastest-growing segment of sports representation is the least visible to AI engines.
Engines Know the Top 100. Everyone Else Is a Coin Flip.
| Athlete Tier | ChatGPT | Perplexity | Gemini | Average |
|---|
| Top 100 (by earnings) | 74% | 82% | 60% | 72% |
| Athletes 101-500 | 38% | 42% | 22% | 34% |
The engines know who represents the top 100. They don't know who represents anyone else. For any athlete outside the top 100, there is a ~66% chance the engine returns wrong or outdated agent information.
Baseball Agents Cite Highest. Soccer Agents Are Invisible.
| Sport | Top Agency | Score | Top Agent | Score | Why |
|---|
| MLB | Boras Corp | 82 | Scott Boras | 88 | Public salary arbitration = deepest archive |
| NFL | CAA Football | 78 | Drew Rosenhaus | 72 | Draft + contract negotiations = public spectacle |
| NBA | Klutch Sports | 74 | Rich Paul | 82 | Player movement + Rich Paul's cultural presence |
| Soccer (U.S.) | CAA Base | 48 | Jorge Mendes | 38 | European-dominated; thin in U.S. engines |
| Olympic | Wasserman | 56 | Casey Wasserman | 56 | Olympic cycle = intermittent spikes |
Who Built the Deepest Narrative — Not the Biggest Client List
| Winner | Why |
|---|
| CAA across sports | Only agency scoring A on all three engines across multiple sports. |
| Scott Boras individually | Citation Share (88) exceeds every conglomerate. Public narrative is a retrieval moat. |
| Perplexity for "who represents" | 82% accuracy, 20+ points above Gemini. Real-time search wins on factual queries. |
| Agents with cultural narratives | Rich Paul, Ari Emanuel, Jay-Z, stories beyond deals = higher citation than bigger client lists. |
66% Error Rate Below the Top 100
| Risk | Who It Hurts | Severity |
|---|
| 66% error rate on athletes 101-500 | Brands, athletes seeking representation | High |
| NIL category invisible | NIL agents, college athletes, collectives | High |
| Roc Nation overshadowed by music | Roc Nation Sports | Medium |
| Contract vs. marketing agent confusion | Brands calling the wrong agent | Medium |
What Agents, Athletes, and Brands Should Do Now
| Audience | What This Means | What to Do |
|---|
| Sports Agents | Your AI profile shapes the consideration set before the phone rings. | Publish deal announcements with named clients. Schema-mark your team page. Earn trade press. |
| Athletes | The engine answer is shaped by narrative, not results. | Cross-reference with NFLPA/NBA agent registries. The chatbox is a starting point, not diligence. |
| Brand Marketers | "Who represents [athlete]" is correct 72% for top-100. Below that, coin flip. | Verify through league databases before endorsement outreach. |
| NIL Advisors | Your entire category is invisible. Zero named advisors on any query. | First-mover: publish NIL deal data + named profiles on open URLs. The seat is empty. |
NIL Enters the Graph in 12 Months
NIL advisory firms enter the citation graph within 12 months. First firm to publish a named-deal database on an open URL owns the category answer, zero competition.
Perplexity becomes the default "who represents" engine. Real-time architecture + source links = structurally better for factual representation queries.
The agent-vs-agency gap widens. Agents with personal brands will continue to outrank their employers. The agent IS the brand in the chatbox.
Soccer agent citation share rises with the 2026 World Cup. U.S.-hosted tournament = massive English-language transfer and representation coverage. Mendes, CAA Base, Stellar Group enter the U.S. engine answer at scale.
Related: NFL Owners Reputation Index 2026 · Sports Betting AI Visibility Index · Citation Share: The KPI Behind GEO · GEO Pillar Hub
Methodology: 40 prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. June 2026. Five sports. Dual-rater, 91% agreement. Representation accuracy verified against Forbes, league registries, and agency press releases. Citation Share Score = citation frequency (60%) + cross-engine breadth (40%).
