AAF is Advancing Technology and Instant Gambling Possibilities

Whatever happens once the novelty of a new pro football league wears off, the AAF is here to stay because of their technology leaps and the ability to make money on the advancements, and that should keep the league in business for years to come.

Despite a report it took a $250 million investment (bailout) to save league payroll for a week, and the average crowd size would rank in the bottom 25% of any college football weekend, AAF league brass are quietly confident because of everything from rules transparency that might transfer over to the NFL, to big money gambling.

The AAF's long-term business play isn’t even based on ticket sales and TV ratings, unlike traditional sports leagues. It’s instead based on sports gambling data and technology that is using football as its "public storefront and laboratory."

The AAF is filled with deep-pocketed Silicon Valley venture capitalists and MGM Resorts International investors who are banking on back-end technology developed by software engineers who had stints at Tesla and Lockheed Martin to power and develop the tech and then sell it to partners. Anywhere from a half to three-quarters of a billion dollars is expected to be invested over the next five years.

It's a big gamble as start up football leagues have spectacularly failed in the past, plus Vince McMahon is pumping in $500 million bringing back his XFL next year, starting the same week as the second season of the AAF.

The high-techies in the AAF are banking on the advancement of technology to the point where you are gambling on plays during the game. As the play clock winds down, smartphone technology will allow you to wager whether the next play will be a pass or run? First down or touchdown? The possibilities and combinations are endless and that's the point. With the recent Supreme Court decision effectively wiping out the sports gambling laws leaving it up to the individual states to figure out how to proceed, the sheer numbers will only rise dramatically.

More money on more plays in more states also is expected to intensify viewer interest in more games in more leagues even when the game scores are lopsided, making them more valuable to media companies and advertisers.

The ultimate goal to level the betting playing field is to have no lag time between what happens at the live event and the time gamblers see it streaming on their phones. The transmission delay between the live event and when a viewer sees it on a TV or phone can take many seconds, giving an advantage to gamblers at the live event who can see it before the rest of the world. This new technology has already effectively erased that gap as last weekend the AAF's streaming app was showing live action well before television was by more than a play.

The sports books are enticed by an obviously longer action window if wagerers can eventually gamble on how a possession will end and how many plays from that instant moving forward will the current drive consume.

My head is about to explode.