HAND – the first AI-powered, global standards-based, business intelligence & Talent ID registry platform, today awarded the 2025 Major League Baseball (MLB) 1st round draft class with individual HAND IDs.
HAND is the first global B2B Talent ID registry platform for the efficient discoverability, royalty collection and revenue tracking of notable legal and natural persons. It streamlines licensing and traceability of consent-based digital replicas and provides authentication in the media supply-chain.
With a HAND ID, the 30 players of the 2025 MLB 1st Round Draft class will be able to more effectively manage and utilize their Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) and protect against unauthorized usages as they begin their professional careers.
The 2025 MLB Draft class (Round 1) was headed by Eli Willits (Washington Nationals), Tyler Bremner (Los Angeles Angels), Kade Anderson (Seattle Mariners), and Ethan Holliday (Colorado Rockies) – the top four picks respectively, earning a combined $33.7 million in signing bonuses across their new MLB teams. The 2025 MLB Playoffs begin their initial Wild Card round on Tuesday, September 30th.
HAND’s Digital Object Identifier (DOI) technology (ISO 26324.2025) offers a unique, persistent “forever ID” for notable talent across industries, including entertainment, sports, advertising, fashion, the creator economy, and gaming. This interoperable system also automates talent identification, verification, and resolution of consent-based digital replicas, helping protect against unauthorized deepfakes while enabling more efficient likeness licensing.
HAND – The Universal Talent Identifier, is a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation focused on establishing HAND as the definitive industry standard for talent ID registration.
“The MLB 1st Round Draft class of 2025 already has extensive experience in management of their NIL as a result of deals made during their high-school and college playing days,” says Will Kreth, CEO and Founder of HAND. “The need to manage authorized usage of their likeness in everything from advertising to video games will only intensify now that they are professional athletes. The standards-based HAND ID that has been awarded to them has no expiration date, and is the simplest and most effective way for these athletes to ensure that they not only have an automated manner for residual and royalty collection of authorized usage of NIL, but also an effective mechanism for identification of unauthorized uses.”
Like a protective lighthouse signal for talent, HAND automates the identification, verification, provenance, and authenticity of talent-related assets in audio/visual works and virtual environments to help maintain integrity and version control of authorized likenesses in monetizable content. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Fabric Data/BB Media, and AFI (American Film Institute) are among 12 international companies who are API/Beta partners testing and deploying HAND’s Talent IDs.