If you think MGM is getting a great deal in purchasing the AFF’s real-time betting app for $125,000, you’re not alone.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, a fight is looming within the confines of the AAF’s bankruptcy proceeding over whether the proposed sale of the app to MGM should be approved.
Beyond the measly sum of $125,000, which in most American markets wouldn’t come close to buying a three-bedroom house, MGM will reduce its claim against the AAF bankruptcy estate from $7 million to $5 million. But so what? Beyond the app, the AAF’s assets are largely non-existent — to the point where the AAF at one point advised creditors to not waste their time filing claims.
The thinking is that, if the AAF indeed plunked $40 million into the development of technology that permits real-time betting (the delay from field to phone is a matter of milliseconds), the app has a value far greater than $125,000 plus an effort to get 28.5 percent less blood from a turnip. So why not market it aggressively? Why not auction the technology to any and all interested parties, from traditional casinos to FanDuel/DraftKings to the various sports leagues (NFL included) to major tech companies that could turn the thing into the pre-eminent driver of instaneous wagering, worldwide?
Those arguments will eventually be made in the AAF’s bankruptcy case. And if, in the interim, anyone out there wants to make a better offer for an app that could be worth tens of millions if not more, now is the time to make your interest known.