The AAF's tech was able to track players' every movement with a delay of less than a secondGETTY IMAGES
A prevailing thought coming out of the AAF suspending operations yesterday is the perception that Chair Tom Dundon "bought a majority stake in the league simply for the gambling app being developed," according to the MMQB's Albert Breer. One source said Dundon "got the technology he wanted and he's now minus one rather large headache" after shutting down the league (TWITTER.com, 4/2). In San Antonio, Greg Luca in a front-page piece notes the AAF's app "tracked the players' every movement with a delay of less than a second, opening the potential for real-time gambling and fantasy sports" (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 4/3). ESPN's Bomani Jones noted the AAF was "seeking to develop an app that cuts the lag time as much as possible to what is happening on the field to what's going on with your phone." Jones: "That way, you are able to bet play by play by play. They want to make this as easy as possible to give them your money." If developers "come up with a way to cut that lag time as much as they want," that will be "well worth the $70 million" that Dundon put into operating the league ("High Noon," ESPN, 4/2).
AHEAD OF ITS TIME? NBCSN's Mike Florio said the AAF's plan was to "survive long enough for legalized gambling to spread to the point where there are enough people out there walking around with their cellphones looking for things to bet on." He said, "‘There's football to bet on in February, March, and April? I can watch games and place bets during the games?’ I think that's five, 10 years away. So how do you generate revenue between now and then. That was the problem.” He added with sports betting legal in less than 10 states, there "aren't enough people out there who sufficiently care because they don't have money riding on the outcomes of the games” (“PFT,” NBCSN, 4/3).
NON-FOOTBALL FOCUS: RECODE's Theodore Schleifer noted the AAF was "backed by familiar names in Silicon Valley" such as Founders Fund, The Chernin Group and venture capitalist Keith Rabois. While the league was "not a tech company, per se, it had some tech panache" and put "in-game sports betting and other tech-enabled experiences at the forefront of its revenue model" (RECODE.net, 4/2). Sports Business Journal's Daniel Kaplan said, "There was also a lot of talk about they were a technology company, they were an app company, they were going to ride the wave of gambling. That's all well and good but at the end of the day if you're starting a football league the product has to be football. Everything else is ancillary" ("OTL," ESPN, 4/2).
