For athletes, creators and sponsors · a documented account
Robert “Bobby” Flick and Universal Elite Agency, LLC: what happened when I paid $2,500
I paid Universal Elite Agency, LLC $2,500 for a contractual minimum of twenty host-read podcast ad spots. I have received none of them.
No ad reads. No branding placement. No performance report. No event access. No refund. Robert “Bobby” Flick, the agency's owner, has replied to me intermittently with explanations for the delay, but nothing has ever been delivered.
I am publishing this so that anyone else being pitched by this agency can read what happened to me and decide for themselves. Every factual statement below is supported by a document reproduced on this page.
Who this is for
Universal Elite Agency, LLC presents itself as a media and talent operation with a portfolio of podcasts and access to major sporting and entertainment events. It pitches sponsorship packages to brands and represents athletes and creators.
If you are being pitched by this agency — as a sponsor buying ad inventory, or as an athlete or creator considering representation — this page is a record of one deal that was paid for in full and never delivered. Read it, then make your own call.
The agreement
On December 30, 2025, my company signed a Media Sponsorship Agreement with Universal Elite Agency, LLC. It was countersigned by Robert T. Flick, who signed as Owner / Agent.
The agreement is specific about what the agency committed to deliver. Section 2.1 required, as a minimum:
- Twenty (20) ad reads on the agency's podcasts, on shows of our choice
- Each ad read at least thirty seconds long
- Mid-roll placement where reasonably possible
- Delivered verbally by the podcast host — the contract explicitly excludes a third-party voice or a pre-recorded generic advertisement
- Each carrying a unique attribution link so the sponsorship could be measured
- Read substantially as written from scripts we supplied
Beyond the ad reads, Section 2.2 committed the agency to branding placement across podcast artwork, video overlays, and episode show notes. Section 2.5 entitled us to written performance reporting on reasonable request, including a count of ad reads actually delivered. Section 2.6 committed the agency to guest appearances for our representatives, travel with the shows, and VIP credentialing at major events, guaranteeing access to no fewer than four major events annually.
The contract defines the shows in question, at Section 1(h), as the entire portfolio of podcasts “currently produced, distributed, marketed, or operated by Agency,” along with any launched or acquired later.
What I paid
Schedule A sets the total sponsorship fee at $2,500.00 USD, due in full upon execution of the agreement — the entire amount up front, before anything was delivered.
I paid it in full. Mr. Flick sent me the receiving details by text message — an account in the name of Universal Elite Agency at Wells Fargo, with his own name on the account — and I sent the money by Wise transfer. The transaction number was 1898156302. $2,507.17 left my account including the $7.17 transfer fee, and $2,500.00 was received.
What I received
Nothing.
No ad reads have aired. There has been no branding placement, no performance report, no guest appearance, and no event credential. I have not received a refund, and I have not been offered one.
Trying to get an answer
Mr. Flick has not gone completely silent. Over the months since I paid, he has replied from time to time — that he has been busy, that things are moving, that he will get to it. What has never arrived is a single ad read, a performance report, or a refund.
This is the last substantive message I have from him, on July 13. I had put the position to him directly: he signed a contract, took my money, and disappeared. He does not deny it. He asks me to back off, says he will reach out and see me “at some point this week,” and refers to legal fallout he is dealing with. That was over a month ago.
Reaching him by phone has been another matter. Between June 9 and July 1, I called him six times. My call log records those calls lasting 3, 5, 5, 12, 14 and 57 seconds — one brief connection, and the rest unanswered.
The messages before the money
For context, this is what the conversation looked like in the days before I paid. The agency was responsive, enthusiastic, and quick to send bank details.
If you are considering a deal with this agency
Everything above is documented. What follows is my own view, based on those facts, which I have set out in full so you can weigh them yourself.
I would not sign with this agency again, and I would not recommend that you do. My contract was not vague. It had specific, countable obligations written into it — twenty ad reads, thirty seconds each, read by the host — and that specificity turned out to be worth nothing the moment the money left my account.
That is the part worth understanding. Getting good terms on paper did not protect me. What would have protected me was not paying everything up front.
What I would insist on now
- Never pay the full fee on signature. Mine was structured that way and it is the single reason I am out $2,500. Tie payment to delivery — a deposit, then the balance after the first placements actually air.
- Get a hard deadline with a refund attached. A delivery obligation with no date and no remedy is not really an obligation.
- Ask for proof of the podcast portfolio before any money moves. Which shows, hosted by whom, what downloads, and what right does the agency have to sell ad inventory on them.
- Ask to speak with a current sponsor or represented client. Not a testimonial — an actual person you can call.
- Athletes and creators: have your own lawyer read anything before you sign, and be cautious about any arrangement where fees or expenses flow to the agency before work is delivered to you.
Mr. Flick's response
Mr. Flick has my phone number and has been using it for months.
If he disputes anything on this page, I will publish his response here in full and unedited. If he can show me a fact I have wrong, I will correct it. That offer stands indefinitely. Anything appearing in this space is his.
As of August 2026, nothing has been published in this space.