AAF On Brink Of Termination: NFL, Fantasy and Sports Bettors Unable To Support New League

• The Alliance of American Football began their first ever season in February of this year.
• Tom Dundon, Owner of the NHL Carolina Hurricanes, invested $250 million dollars into the AAF and is the majority holder of the league.
• The AAF is in week eight of its 10-week season.

The Alliance of American Football (AAF) is in danger of folding before they can even finish their first ever season. According to a statement made to USA Today Sports from the league’s majority shareholder Tom Dundon, the AAF is currently considering discontinuing the league.

The announcement comes after the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) denied the AAF the right to use NFL practice-squad members or unsigned players as part of their teams.

“If the players union is not going to give us young players, we can’t be a development league,” said Dundon. “We are looking at our options, one of which is discontinuing the league.”

This isn’t the first time the AAF has been in dire need of help. According to the Athletic, the league was in trouble of making payroll after just the second week of the season. The $250 million investment by Tom Dundon, owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, allowed them to continue playing.

That report was later denied by AAF co-founder Charlie Ebersol, but the dangers of the league folding are now very real.

The NFLPA’s worries come from the possibility of their players not getting enough rest time before the start of the NFL season, a potential injury that could inhibit them from practicing with their NFL team and the chance for the AAF to contractually sign those players away from the NFL altogether.

Without the right players, the AAF can expect to lose more fans than it already has. The AAF was relying primarily on sports gambling to help fuel its growth, but sports bettors and fantasy players have both seemingly lost interest in the league.

Tom Dundon is expected to make an announcement on the future of the league later this week. The implications of what this means for people who have placed sports bets on the league will remain unclear until then.

How The AAF Failed To Attract Sports Bettors

Before the start of the season, one of the main priorities of the AAF was to capture the new wave of sports betting legalization across the country to gain interest in the new league.

“Ultimately, I think gambling is going to be a staple of professional sports. We have built a data capture and manifestation platform that’s capable of standardizing the delivery of that data to gambling houses and fantasy leagues,” said Ebersol.

However, the data provided by the AAF was only seen to be sent to their gaming partner MGM for live bets made with the MGM sports wagering app. The app itself has not been promoted since the start of the season.

One important piece of information they seemed to withhold from the public was official injury reports. If sports bettors don’t know who is going to be playing that week, it is difficult for them to decide which team to wager on.

Official game stats were also difficult for sports bettors to find or access. The only website that lists post-game stats, noextrapoints.com, which isn’t affiliated with the league at all. Not being able to see previous box scores and player performances is also a huge deterrent for bettors.

The AAF also seemed to fail fantasy sports players. The league was unable to reach a deal with the two major DFS companies DraftKings and FanDuel before the start of the season.

Neither site offers AAF fantasy options, and the DraftKings sportsbook didn’t even release betting lines on the league until after their second week of the season.

While the on-field play has gotten better since the start of the season, the lack of attention to their targeted audience and a myriad of financial troubles may just end the AAF before it’s able to finish it’s start.

News tags: AAF | DFS | Fantasy Football | NFL