It’s no secret that the size of the NIL war chest attached to the Arkansas football program is closer to the bottom of the SEC than the top.
Perhaps it’s, say, No. 10 in the 16-team conference. That’s respectable, of course, and very competitive against other Power 4 schools, but nothing to write home about. Something in that range would correlate with where Arkansas traditionally finishes in the SEC pecking order when it comes to recruiting class rankings.
Looking ahead, things aren’t going to get much easier. The same programs that almost always finish ahead of Arkansas in recruiting rankings are also padding their own NIL coffers. Just look at the Texas A&M football program, for instance. The Aggies’ student-athletes more than tripled their earnings from the span of July 1, 2022 to July 1, 2023 to the span of July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024, jumping up from $6.2 million in total NIL deals to $19.4 million.
Sure, the Razorbacks now sell their own custom beer to raise NIL funds, but these kinds of developments are behind the curve. Ole Miss, for instance, did the custom beer thing last fall while Tennessee unleashed its own custom vodka.
The hope, for a while, was perhaps Arkansas football could piggyback off the excitement generated by the basketball program’s hire of John Calipari but those hopes seem for naught without actual substantial on-field wins. Arkansas Edge, the Hogs’ NIL collective, launched a drive to have 5,000 members in March. By the time executive director Chris Bauer stepped down last month, however, the number of members was 782.
In such a competitive NIL landscape, where the rich just seem to keep getting richer, how will Arkansas ever find a potentially game-changing advantage?
UA NIL Collective Contacts Saracen
One possibility comes from Saracen Casino Resort, which has the largest sports casino in Arkansas in terms of market share. This summer, representatives of Arkansas Edge, the Razorbacks’ NIL collective, expressed interest in the development of a product from Saracen that could help generate considerable NIL funds for the Hogs.
Saracen’s chief market officer, Carlton Saffa, fielded that call, he told Best of Arkansas Sports’ Andrew Hutchinson in a phone interview.
Saracen, which already sponsors certain Arkansas football games, could develop the technology to run off its BetSaracen app at a much cheaper price point than Arkansas Edge could.
“My conservative estimate is it would cost them at least a million dollars,” Saffa said. Bet Saracen could leverage its pre-existing relationships, such as a geolocation partner and “know-your-customer-identity verification partner,” to help make the development more economic, Saffa added in the Saturday interview.
For its own tech, Arkansas Edge would have had to navigate “banking relationships with Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Venmo, all of which are very expensive and require incredible amounts of lawyering,” he said, adding that simply running it would have taken “tens of thousands of dollars a week at least” in overhead.
So, through much of the last six weeks, Saracen honed a technology that would allow the Arkansas Edge to run a 50/50 drawing within an app that could generate millions for the Razorbacks over the course of a season.
A 50/50 drawing, sometimes known as a 50/50 raffle, is a fundraiser where half of the proceeds typically go to a non-profit or charity of choice. For example, if 5,000 tickets are sold at $5 each ($25,000 jackpot), Arkansas Edge could retain half of the proceeds ($12,500) and the winning Razorback fan would take home the other half ($12,500).
KC Chiefs Already Doing Something Similar
This is an idea that professional teams across North American have already used to great effect.
The Kansas City Chiefs run what they term a 50/50 Raffle that generates significant revenue for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports charitable agencies in the greater Kansas City community.
Saffa says this drawing historically generates about $200,000 to $300,000 per KC Chiefs home game, but he expects more would be generated for Arkansas football because the Chiefs’ drawing is limited to those in the city of Kansas City and surrounding areas, but the Razorbacks’ version would teams extend to anybody signing up for an account and using the app who’s physically in the state of Arkansas.
If such a 50/50 drawing were held for most if not all Razorback football games, plus basketball and baseball games, it’s easy to see how the revenue could rack up relatively quickly and the Razorbacks could generate millions of NIL dollars this way. “We would have an innovative NIL fundraising strategy that no state has done,” added Saffa, a University of Arkansas graduate.
For a more apple-to-apples comparison of what Arkansas could do, Saffa points to Canada where an online 50/50 raffile is run in the province of Alberta, home to two NHL teams in the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames. Alberta is home to 4.37 million people compared to Arkansas’ 3 million people so is comparable especially given the presence of two – not one – major sports teams:
Based on the link in the above Tweet, here are some of the check amounts written out to the various winners, which would equal the same amounts that could go to a non-profit (like Arkansas Edge):
- $1,183,462
- $2,771,135
- $407,087
- $553,675
- $1,215,830
Granted, the per capita income of Albertans is $70,705, the highest among Canadian provinces, while Arkansas’ per capita income is about $18,000 lower, but even accounting for that difference it’s easy to see how this could raise millions in additional NIL funds.
This isn’t a pie-in-the-sky possibility. It has buy-in from the UA athletic department and a deep-pocketed sponsor and could start happening as soon as, say, October if all the pieces fell into place ASAP. Indeed, Saffa was hopeful it could be ready to go for the opener vs UAPB.
What’s the Hold Up for Arkansas Football to Benefit?
But there are some significant hurdles to turning this NIL possibility into a reality, however.
A drawing is considered a “game of chance” and current state law does not allow such games of chance that would generate NIL funds to be conducted electronically (see page 77 here for the current law).
However, with certain amendments to the state law, such technology could be used for such ends. Some of those proposed amendments, provided by Saffa, are in red below:
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Page 3
The process to make these additions would entail the following, according to Saffa:
- A hearing at the Arkansas Racing Commission
- A public comment period
- A second hearing
- Then the proposed amendment would be forwarded to the Arkansas Legislative Council for ratification.
- In all, the process takes anywhere between 45 and 60 days.
“The rule would allow all Arkansas casinos to run these 50/50 drawings, and it is my sincere hope that all Arkansas casinos do run 50/50 drawings benefiting NIL,” said Saffa, who added he’s also in talks to do something similar with the athletic departments of other public universities in Arkansas.
On Friday night, Saffa brought another issue to the public’s attention. According to him, there’s someone involved with the University of Arkansas who is trying to obstruct the efforts of the UA and Saracen to initiate the amendment approval process and ultimately launch this product.
It comes across as an unfolding saga, but essentially someone is telling legislators that NIL isn’t a problem for the Razorbacks now, so this kind of technology isn’t needed. It seems far-fetched to think legislators paying attention to the NIL situation at Arkansas wouldn’t know the football program is lagging behind, so perhaps there’s some missing context here.
“I can only surmise that perhaps some statement about we don’t need NIL money anymore is maybe based upon what will happen next July when the revenue sharing kicks in,” said Saffa, referring to the payout of likely between $12-$17 million each SEC football program will start making to student-athletes as part of its new revenue-sharing model.
Other States Interested in This Potential NIL Game-Changer
But those payouts won’t move the needle for Arkansas’ situation if all schools are having to do them. Saffa publicly aired his grievances around what he considers “sabotaging” of Arkansas’ NIL efforts because, sure, it’s his job to make sure Saracen’s efforts and investments don’t go to waste. (Saracen will collect email addresses to register users, but would not profit off this 50/50 drawing boosting Arkansas’ NIL funds.)
Mostly, though, Saffa says he wants to see his beloved sports program thrive and stop getting left behind.
“Look, I graduated from the University of Arkansas,” he said. “My wife graduated from the University of Arkansas. My children have no choice. They will attend the University of Arkansas. This is where we need to be focusing.”
No athletic department has yet banked off of 50/50 drawings that can be played online, and he wants to see the Razorbacks benefit before anybody else.
“I have actually received calls from other states who had heard… that we had this technology,” Saffa said. “There are other states that already want to license this. I’ve said to them that I am going to do it in our state first and then we might consider it.
“I’m not inclined to help another state raise NIL money.”
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More about the Arkansas football NIL situation here:
