Risk Disclosure
Below are potential risks associated with investing in Moneyline Sports via this offering of securities under Regulation Crowdfunding:
Investing in the Offered Securities involves a high degree of risk and may result in the loss of your entire investment. Before making an investment decision with respect to the Offered Securities, we urge you to carefully consider the risks described in this section and other factors set forth in this Form C. In addition to the risks specified below, the Company is subject to the same risks that all companies in its business, and all companies in the economy, are exposed to. These include risks relating to economic downturns, political and economic events and technological developments (such as hacking and the ability to prevent hacking). Additionally, early-stage companies are inherently riskier than more developed companies. Prospective Investors should consult with their legal, tax and financial advisors prior to making an investment in the Offered Securities. The Offered Securities should only be purchased by persons who can afford to lose all of their investment.
We have a limited operating history upon which you can evaluate our performance, and accordingly, our prospects must be considered in light of the risks that any new company encounters.
The Company is still in an early phase and we are just beginning to implement our business plan. There can be no assurance that we will ever operate profitably. The likelihood of our success should be considered in light of the problems, expenses, difficulties, complications and delays usually encountered by early-stage companies. The Company may not be successful in attaining the objectives necessary for it to overcome these risks and uncertainties.
Global crises and geopolitical events, including without limitation, COVID-19 can have a significant effect on our business operations and revenue projections.
A significant outbreak of contagious diseases, such as COVID-19, in the human population could result in a widespread health crisis. Additionally, geopolitical events, such as wars or conflicts, could result in global disruptions to supplies, political uncertainty and displacement. Each of these crises could adversely affect the economies and financial markets of many countries, including the United States where we principally operate, resulting in an economic downturn that could reduce the demand for our products and services and impair our business prospects, including as a result of being unable to raise additional capital on acceptable terms, if at all.
The amount of capital the Company is attempting to raise in this Offering may not be enough to sustain the Company’s current business plan.
In order to achieve the Company’s near and long-term goals, the Company may need to procure funds in addition to the amount raised in the Offering. There is no guarantee the Company will be able to raise such funds on acceptable terms or at all. If we are not able to raise sufficient capital in the future, we may not be able to execute our business plan, our continued operations will be in jeopardy and we may be forced to cease operations and sell or otherwise transfer all or substantially all of our remaining assets, which could cause an Investor to lose all or a portion of their investments.
We may face potential difficulties in obtaining capital.
We may have difficulty raising needed capital in the future as a result of, among other factors, our lack of revenues from sales, as well as the inherent business risks associated with our Company and present and future market conditions. We will require additional funds to execute our business strategy and conduct our operations. If adequate funds are unavailable, we may be required to delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate one or more of our research, development or commercialization programs, product launches or marketing efforts, any of which may materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may implement new lines of business or offer new products and services within existing lines of business.
As an early-stage company, we may implement new lines of business at any time. There are substantial risks and uncertainties associated with these efforts, particularly in instances where the markets are not fully developed. In developing and marketing new lines of business and/or new products and services, we may invest significant time and resources. Initial timetables for the introduction and development of new lines of business and/or new products or services may not be achieved, and price and profitability targets may not prove feasible. We may not be successful in introducing new products and services in response to industry trends or developments in technology, or those new products may not achieve market acceptance. As a result, we could lose business, be forced to price products and services on less advantageous terms to retain or attract clients or be subject to cost increases. As a result, our business, financial condition or results of operations may be adversely affected.
We rely on various intellectual property rights, including trademarks, in order to operate our business.
We rely on certain intellectual property rights to operate its business. Our intellectual property rights may not be sufficiently broad or otherwise may not provide us a significant competitive advantage. In addition, the steps that we have taken to maintain and protect our intellectual property may not prevent it from being challenged, invalidated, circumvented or designed-around, particularly in countries where intellectual property rights are not highly developed or protected. In some circumstances, enforcement may not be available to us because an infringer has a dominant intellectual property position or for other business reasons, or countries may require compulsory licensing of our intellectual property. Our failure to obtain or maintain intellectual property rights that convey competitive advantage, adequately protect our intellectual property or detect or prevent circumvention or unauthorized use of such property, could adversely impact our competitive position and results of operations. We also rely on non-disclosure and non-competition agreements with employees, consultants and other parties to protect, in part, trade secrets and other proprietary rights. There can be no assurance that these agreements will adequately protect our trade secrets and other proprietary rights and will not be breached, that we will have adequate remedies for any breach, that others will not independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information or that third parties will not otherwise gain access to our trade secrets or other proprietary rights. As we expand our business, protecting our intellectual property will become increasingly important. The protective steps we have taken may be inadequate to deter our competitors from using our proprietary information. In order to protect or enforce our patent rights, we may be required to initiate litigation against third parties, such as infringement lawsuits. Also, these third parties may assert claims against us with or without provocation. These lawsuits could be expensive, take significant time and could divert management’s attention from other business concerns. The law relating to the scope and validity of claims in the technology field in which we operate is still evolving and, consequently, intellectual property positions in our industry are generally uncertain. We cannot assure you that we will prevail in any of these potential suits or that the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, would be commercially valuable.
The success of our business depends on the quality of our strategy and our ability to execute on it.
Our business strategy makes a number of assumptions about the current and future state of the industry in which we operate, including, but not limited to, the current and future state of the markets and economies in which we operate, the current and expected future actions of governmental agencies, the current and future capacity and effectiveness of our competitors, and the current and future desires and wants and means of our customers. Our strategy also makes assumptions about the current and future state of our own business, including our capacity and effectiveness and our ability to respond to all of the aforementioned factors, among others. All of these assumptions are informed by data and information that is publicly available and which we gather for ourselves and by our ability to process and understand such data and information. Any or all of our assumptions may prove to be faulty and/or our data and/or information may be inaccurate or incomplete, in which case our strategy may prove to be incorrect or inadequate for the demands of our industry. Even if our strategy is a good one, we cannot be certain that our business is equipped to execute the plans and actions that might be necessary to achieve success. If any of our assumptions prove to be incorrect, our strategies prove to be poor or we are unable to execute on our strategies then our business, financial condition, results of operations, prospects and cash flows could be negatively impacted.
The success of our business depends in part on our ability to anticipate and satisfy customer preferences in a timely manner.
As we operate in a dynamic environment characterized by rapidly changing industry and legal standards, our products are subject to changing consumer preferences that cannot be predicted with certainty. We need to continually introduce new offerings and identify future product offerings that complement our existing platforms, respond to our customers’ needs and improve and enhance our existing platforms to maintain or increase our customer engagement and growth of our business. We may not be able to compete effectively if our sports betting applications are not competitive or unless our product selection keeps up with trends in the digital sports entertainment and gaming industries in which we compete, or trends in new gaming products. If we are unable to anticipate and satisfy customer preferences in a timely manner and/or we are unable to provide competitive and appealing products to our customers, then our business, financial condition, results of operations, prospects and cash flows could be negatively impacted.
Competition within the broader entertainment industry is intense and our existing and potential customers may be attracted to competing betting and gaming options, as well as other forms of entertainment, such as video games, television, movies and sporting events.
We operate in the entertainment betting and gaming industries within the broader entertainment industry, with our business-to-consumer offerings, including sports betting and online casino gaming. Our customers are offered a vast array of entertainment choices. Other forms of entertainment, such as television, movies, sporting events, other forms of non-gambling games and in-person casinos, are well established and may be perceived by our customers to offer greater variety, affordability, interactivity and enjoyment. New and alternative product categories are continuously evolving that may be perceived by our customers to offer equivalent or better entertainment, including casual games, daily fantasy sports (a variation on fantasy sports leagues), and apps and websites that offer the trading of financial instruments in a manner that incorporates elements that are similar to gambling. We compete with these other forms of entertainment for the discretionary time and income of our customers. If we are unable to sustain sufficient interest in our product offerings in comparison to other forms of entertainment, our business model may not continue to be viable.
Our future results of operations are expected to fluctuate due to seasonality.
Although the sporting calendar is year-round, there is seasonality in sporting events that may impact our operations. This expected seasonality can be expected to adversely affect our revenues and cashflow during times of year when customers are naturally more likely to engage with other non-gaming activities. Such fluctuations and uncertainties may negatively impact our overall operating results.
Because a significant portion of our sports betting business is based on open-air, live events, extreme weather conditions may result in the postponement or cancellation of such events and negatively impact our associated revenues.
Extreme weather conditions may interrupt live sporting events, causing their postponement or, in unusual circumstances, their cancellation. In such circumstances, because our sports betting operations rely on such events being carried out in accordance with pre-set timetables, we may be forced to reverse wagers already placed or remove future betting propositions. Climate change may make past weather conditions unrepresentative of future weather conditions and extreme weather conditions may increase in number or severity in the future. While certain sporting events may shift to closed environments, other sporting events may be ill-suited or less popular in such environments. We do not currently maintain insurance coverage applicable to cover either the costs or loss of revenue that we may incur due to the postponement or cancellation of events caused by extreme weather conditions. These circumstances may adversely affect our revenues and our customer relationships.
We make use of machine learning and other data science and analytics techniques and technologies throughout our business and attempt to integrate this into customer-facing systems in ways that may have significant effects on our revenues and profits. The nature of such systems is that their outcomes cannot always be predicted and, therefore, our periodic operating results will not be guarantees of future performance.
We use machine learning and data science and analytics methodologies and techniques to seek to understand individual customer preferences and attributes as well as to detect fraud and manage risk. Machine learning systems are by their nature often opaque and can evolve over time. If we fail to implement or maintain adequate controls over such systems, then they may evolve to produce outcomes that could adversely affect our results of operations.If we are unable to attract new customers or retain existing customers, or if our systems for capturing and processing data were to degrade or fail in any way, then the amount of data reviewed and processed by our machine learning and data science and analytics models will be reduced or fail to grow at a pace that will allow us to continue to improve the efficiency of our models, which may reduce the accuracy of such systems. Additionally, such systems may not be able to effectively account for matters that are inherently difficult to predict or are otherwise beyond our control, such as social engineering and other methods of perpetrating fraud that do not lend themselves well to risk-based analysis. Material errors or inaccuracies in such machine learning and data science and analytics models could lead us to make inaccurate or sub-optimal operational or strategic decisions, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on third-party service providers, such as third-party payment processors, third-party marketing and customer communications systems providers, third-party sportsbook technology providers and third-party outsourced services providers.
We will rely on third-party payment processors to process financial transaction made by our customers with our platform. If any of our third-party payment processors terminates its relationship with us or refuses to renew its agreement with us on commercially reasonable terms, we would need to find an alternate payment processor, and may not be able to secure similar terms or replace such payment processor in an acceptable time frame. Further, the software and services provided by our third-party payment processors may not meet our expectations, contain errors or vulnerabilities, be compromised or experience outages. Any of these risks could cause us to lose our ability to accept online payments or other payment transactions with customers on our platform, which could adversely affect our ability to attract and retain customers.All payments will be made by credit card, debit card or through other third-party payment services, which subjects us to certain regulations and to the risk of fraud. We may in the future offer new payment options to customers that may be subject to additional regulations and risks and/or may incur higher transaction charges. If we fail to comply with applicable rules and regulations, we may be subject to civil or criminal penalties, fines and/or higher transaction fees and may lose our ability to accept online payments or other payment card transactions, which could make our offerings less convenient and attractive to our customers. If any of these events were to occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be adversely affected.Initially, we intend to rely on third-party service providers for components of our marketing and customer communications processes and systems. Failures or outages in these systems may inhibit our ability to acquire new customers or retain existing customers. The nature of these processes means that certain customer personal information may be transmitted through these systems. If these systems are compromised in any way, then customer personal data might be compromised and in turn our customers’ perception of our reliability and security might be impacted. Any of the foregoing risks could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.We also will rely on third-party sports data providers to obtain accurate information regarding schedules, results, performance and outcomes of sporting events. We will rely on this data to display sporting events, odds and outcomes to customers. If we experience errors in this data feed that result in us incorrectly displaying events, odds and outcomes, our customers may have a negative experience with our offerings. Any such failure in our service could harm our reputation, business and operating results.
Our business depends on a strong brand, and if we are not able to develop, maintain and enhance our brand and reputation, including as a result of negative publicity, our business and operating results may be harmed.
We believe that developing, maintaining and enhancing our brand is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our products and services, attracting new customers, retaining existing customers, persuading existing customers to adopt additional products and services and hiring and retaining our employees. We believe that the importance of our brand will increase as competition in our markets further intensifies. Successful promotion of our brand will depend on a number of factors, including the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, our ability to provide high-quality, reliable and cost-effective products and services, the perceived value of our products and services and our ability to provide quality customer support. Brand promotion activities require us to make substantial expenditures, which we may not be able to afford. The promotion of our brand, however, may not generate customer awareness or increase revenue.
We intend to rely on different marketing channels to acquire and retain customers and to promote our brands and our products.
We intend to employ a variety of marketing initiatives, including digital marketing (e.g., online display advertising, search engine marketing, social media and “affiliates” marketing) and retention marketing (e.g., e-mail, text messages and social media). Digital marketing is somewhat complex to undertake. Retention marketing is subject to customer consent which is not always granted or may be revoked. If our ability to execute our plans in any of these channels is inhibited, then our ability to acquire and retain customers may be impaired and our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and prospects could suffer.
Our growth prospects may suffer if we are unable to develop successful offerings or if we fail to pursue additional offerings.
The industry in which we operate is subject to rapid and frequent changes in standards, technologies, products and service offerings, as well as in customer demands and expectations and regulations. We must continuously make decisions regarding in which offerings and technology we should invest to meet customer demand in compliance with evolving industry standards and regulatory requirements and must continually introduce and successfully market new and innovative technologies, offerings and enhancements to remain competitive and effectively stimulate customer demand, acceptance and engagement. Our ability to engage, retain, and increase
our customer base and to increase our revenue will depend on our ability to successfully create new offerings, both independently and together with third parties. We may introduce significant changes to our existing technology and offerings or develop and introduce new and unproven products and services, with which we have little or no prior development or operating experience. The process of developing new offerings and systems is inherently complex and uncertain, and new offerings may not be well received by customers, even if well-reviewed and of high quality. If we are unable to develop technology and products that address customers’ needs or enhance and improve our existing technology and offerings in a timely manner, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Fraud, corruption or negligence related to sports events may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and negatively impact our reputation.
Our reputation and the strength of our brand are key competitive strengths. To the extent that the sports and sports betting industry as a whole or the Company, relative to its competitors, suffers a loss in credibility, our business will be significantly impacted. Factors that could potentially have an impact in this regard include fraud, corruption or negligence related to sports events, including as a result of actual or attempted or alleged match fixing, whether this involves our employees or not. Damage to reputation and credibility could have a material adverse impact on our regulatory licensure, business, financial condition and results of operations.
Any change in existing laws and regulations, or their interpretation or enforcement, or the regulatory climate applicable to our product and service offerings, could adversely impact our ability to operate some or all of our business as currently conducted or as we seek to operate in the future, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In May 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (“PASPA”) as unconstitutional. This decision has the effect of lifting federal restrictions on sports betting and thus allows U.S. states to determine by themselves the legality of sports betting. Since the repeal of PASPA, several states have legalized online sports betting. While we believe our business operations fall outside the purview of gaming and sports betting laws and regulations, should one or more states institute an enforcement action against us, there is no assurance that we would be successful in defending against such action. Any such outcome can be expected to have a significantly negative impact on our company, including our operating results.
Failure to protect or enforce our intellectual property rights, the confidentiality of our trade secrets and confidential information, or the costs involved in protecting or enforcing our intellectual property rights and confidential information, could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We rely on trademark, copyright, trade secret, and domain-name-protection laws to protect our rights in intellectual property. However, third parties may knowingly or unknowingly infringe our rights in intellectual property, third parties may challenge intellectual property rights held by us, and pending and future trademark and patent applications may not be approved or courts/tribunals may not uphold our objections or claims. In addition, effective intellectual property protection may not be available in every country in which we operate or intend to operate our business. In any of these cases, we may be required to expend significant time and expense to prevent infringement or to enforce our rights. There can be no assurance that others will not offer products or services that are substantially similar to ours and compete with our business.
We will rely on licenses to use the intellectual property rights of third parties which are incorporated into our products and offerings. Failure to maintain, renew or expand existing licenses may require us to modify, limit or discontinue certain offerings, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We will rely on products, technologies and intellectual property that we license from third parties, for use in our offerings. A substantial portion of our offerings and services use intellectual property licensed from third parties. The future success of our business may depend, in part, on our ability to obtain, retain and/or expand licenses for popular technologies, data feeds, software platforms and games in a competitive market. We cannot assure that these third-party licenses, or support for such licensed products and technologies, will continue to be available to us on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. In the event that we cannot renew and/or expand existing licenses, we may be required to discontinue or limit our use of the products that include or incorporate the licensed intellectual property. In the event that we cannot agree on appropriate licenses, we may be required to discontinue or limit our use of the relevant data and, to the extent that certain of our offerings or products or components thereof are entirely reliant on such data, we may therefore be unable to continue to provide certain offerings or products or components thereof, in which case our business, our results of operations, our financial results and our prospects may suffer.
If internet and other technology-based service providers experience service interruptions, our ability to conduct our business may be impaired and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
A substantial portion of our network infrastructure is provided by third parties, including internet service providers and other technology-based service providers. We require technology-based service providers to implement cyber-attack-resilient systems and processes. However, if internet service providers experience service interruptions, including because of cyber-attacks, or due to an event causing an unusually high volume of internet use, communications over the internet may be interrupted and impair our ability to conduct our business. Any such system failure which causes a loss of our customers’ property or personal information or a delay or interruption in our online services and products and e-commerce services, including our ability to handle existing or increased traffic, could result in a loss of anticipated revenue, interruptions to our offerings, cause us to incur significant legal, remediation and notification costs, degrade the customer experience and cause customers to lose confidence in our offerings, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Our key personnel and directors are critical to our business, and such key personnel may not remain with our company in the future.
We depend on the continued services of our Chief Executive Officer, B. Michael Friedman. If Mr. Friedman were to leave and not be replaced with sufficiently qualified and experienced personnel, our business could be adversely affected. Our continued success will depend, to a significant extent, upon the performance and contributions of Mr. Friedman and upon our ability to attract motivate and retain highly qualified management personnel and employees. We depend on Mr. Friedman to effectively manage our business in a highly competitive environment. We have not entered into an employment agreement with Mr. Friedman.
Damage to our reputation could negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our reputation and the quality of our brand are critical to our business and success in existing markets, and will be critical to our success as we enter new markets. Any incident that erodes consumer loyalty for our brand could significantly reduce its value and damage our business. We may be adversely affected by any negative publicity, regardless of its accuracy. Also, there has been a marked increase in the use of social media platforms and similar devices, including blogs, social media websites and other forms of internet-based communications that provide individuals with access to a broad audience of consumers and other interested persons. The availability of information on social media platforms is virtually immediate as is its impact. Information posted may be adverse to our interests or may be inaccurate, each of which may harm our performance, prospects or business. The harm may be immediate and may disseminate rapidly and broadly, without affording us an opportunity for redress or correction.
Our business could be negatively impacted by cyber security threats, attacks and other disruptions.
We continue to face advanced and persistent attacks on our information infrastructure where we manage and store various proprietary information and sensitive/confidential data relating to our operations. These attacks may include sophisticated malware (viruses, worms, and other malicious software programs) and phishing emails that attack our products or otherwise exploit any security vulnerabilities. These intrusions sometimes may be zero-day malware that are difficult to identify because they are not included in the signature set of commercially available antivirus scanning programs. Experienced computer programmers and hackers may be able to penetrate our network security and misappropriate or compromise our confidential information or that of our customers or other third-parties, create system disruptions, or cause shutdowns. Additionally, sophisticated software and applications that we produce or procure from third-parties may contain defects in design or manufacture, including “bugs” and other problems that could unexpectedly interfere with the operation of the information infrastructure. A disruption, infiltration or failure of our information infrastructure systems or any of our data centers as a result of software or hardware malfunctions, computer viruses, cyber-attacks, employee theft or misuse, power disruptions, natural disasters or accidents could cause breaches of data security, loss of critical data and performance delays, which in turn could adversely affect our business.
Security breaches of confidential customer information, in connection with our electronic processing of credit and debit card transactions, or confidential employee information may adversely affect our business.
Our business requires the collection, transmission and retention of personally identifiable information, in various information technology systems that we maintain and in those maintained by third parties with whom we contract to provide services. The integrity and protection of that data is critical to us. The information, security and privacy requirements imposed by governmental regulation are increasingly demanding. Our systems may not be able to satisfy these changing requirements and customer and employee expectations, or may require significant additional investments or time in order to do so. A breach in the security of our information technology systems or those of our service providers could lead to an interruption in the operation of our systems, resulting in operational inefficiencies and a loss of profits. Additionally, a significant theft, loss or misappropriation of, or access to, customers’ or other proprietary data or other breach of our information technology systems could result in fines, legal claims or proceedings.
The use of individually identifiable data by our business, our business associates and third parties is regulated at the state, federal and international levels.
The regulation of individual data is changing rapidly, and in unpredictable ways. A change in regulation could adversely affect our business, including causing our business model to no longer be viable. Costs associated with information security – such as investment in technology, the costs of compliance with consumer protection laws and costs resulting from consumer fraud – could cause our business and results of operations to suffer materially.Additionally, the success of our online operations depends upon the secure transmission of confidential information over public networks, including the use of cashless payments. The intentional or negligent actions of employees, business associates or third parties may undermine our security measures. As a result, unauthorized parties may obtain access to our data systems and misappropriate confidential data. There can be no assurance that advances in computer capabilities, new discoveries in the field of cryptography or other developments will prevent the compromise of our customer transaction processing capabilities and personal data. If any such compromise of our security or the security of information residing with our business associates or third parties were to occur, it could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, operating results and financial condition. Any compromise of our data security may materially increase the costs we incur to protect against such breaches and could subject us to additional legal risk.
Our company is not subject to Sarbanes-Oxley regulations and may lack the financial controls and procedures of public companies.
Our company may not have the internal control infrastructure that would meet the standards of a public company, including the requirements of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002. As a privately-held (non-public) issuer, we are not currently subject to the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, and its financial and disclosure controls and procedures reflect its status as a development stage, non-public company. There can be no guarantee that there are no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in the quality of our financial and disclosure controls and procedures. If it were necessary to implement such financial and disclosure controls and procedures, the cost to our company of such compliance could be substantial and could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.