A Texas bankruptcy court ruled Tuesday that the settlement agreement between the now-defunct Alliance of American Football and MGM Resorts International regarding the intellectual property of the league's technology can go through immediately.
The casino and resort company had come to a deal with the trustee of the AAF for ownership of the technology, which was initially fought in court by a group of former AAF players before Tuesday's ruling. In exchange for sole ownership of the tech, the shuttered league would receive $125,000 and have MGM's bankruptcy claim lessened from $7 million to $5 million.
MGM had given the AAF $7 million during its development phase to help build out the league's technology -- which included an app and real-time updating of games within milliseconds. It was one of the big areas that AAF co-founder Charlie Ebersol focused on when talking with the media and public during his initial pitch of the league.
He described the technology in January as something that, if successful, could change the way sports are consumed. When the league began, the app often struggled to work. The technology, though, was expected to offer a different type of gaming experience for fans, which theoretically could be interesting to MGM, a casino-resort company. The plan was for the technology to allow for real-time predicting of plays, such as run or pass, as the offensive coordinator was also deciding the play on his own.
The league folded less than one season into its existence and then filed for bankruptcy in April, leaving behind a multitude of creditors, including former employees and businesses owed money.