The National Football League has confirmed that it won’t be putting out an iPhone version of its NFL app anytime soon, despite the relative popularity of the Major League Baseball’s app for the device, reports alleyinsider.com. Why? The NFL already has a lucrative, exclusive deal with wireless carrier Sprint (NYSE: S), which is literally betting $50 million dollars a year, that the app, which will deliver live phone casts of NFL games, will be able to stop churn and lure more customers. In order for the NFL to match its deal with the beleaguered operator, the NFL would have to sell around 71 million iPhone apps at $5 a piece. Major League Baseball sold around 140,000 copies of its iPhone app MLB At Bat, making a respectable $500,000 after Apple’s 30 percent take. But, as alleyinsider.com writes, “not quite $50 million a year.”

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Photo Credit: NFL.com