After investing $7 million in the now-bankrupt Alliance of American Football, MGM Resorts is seeking to gain control of gambling technology that was being developed by the league.
The two companies have agreed to a partial settlement in bankruptcy actions that would see MGM absorb AAF sports betting assets for $120,000 and reduce its total claim against the league from $7 million to $5 million.
The AAF spent millions of dollars developing an in-play betting app but the project was not completed. The agreement must be approved by a bankruptcy judge and will likely have to undergo a waiting period before it can go into effect.
According to Legal Sports Report, the filing also mentions MGM’s plans to further develop the platform; otherwise, its value “will likely dissipate” over time. Though the AAF app was never completed, the league said it wants to integrate betting and broadcasts within a single platform, relying on MGM’s license for access to state markets.
MGM President of Interactive Gaming Scott Butera told USA Today in the spring that the product was “not fully functional, but it’s almost there.”
“What it will do, which is very important to us from a sports betting standpoint, is allow almost immediate transmission of data and what’s going on in an event to your mobile device, which will allow us to have play-by-play gambling, which is non-existent today.”
