NRL’s American dream stalls as V’landys reveals struggle to crack US wagering market
Peter V’landys has revealed why the NRL’s Vegas experiment hasn’t yet delivered the massive US pay-off promised, but insists Global Round will change everything.
Andrew Webster
4 min read
February 23, 2026 - 4:06PM
Peter V’landys says cracking the US market is much harder that he expected it to be.
ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has conceded the NRL is struggling to make an impact on the US market – nor has it tapped the country’s wagering rivers of gold – but it is charging ahead with ambitious plans to start next season with Global Round.
For the past two years, rugby league’s bold decision to start the season at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas has delivered record broadcast ratings in Australia and overshadowed the AFL’s opening rounds.
Canterbury meets St George Illawarra and North Queensland takes on Newcastle on Sunday (AEDT) in
the third of a five-year deal with the Nevada Tourism Commission.
The US experiment has been the code’s greatest promotion since rock ’n’ roll icon Tina Turner was installed as the face of the game in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Turbo-charging the season domestically and dwarfing rival codes was never the intention, however. Attracting new viewers in the US, as well getting a toenail in the booming online wagering market, were the key planks of V’landys’
American dream.
While
V’landys and chief executive Andrew Abdo have maintained from the start they share a long-term view of taking the game to international markets, it has proved harder than imagined.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo with the key to the Las Vegas Strip and ARLC chairman Peter V’landys and Las Vegas commissioner Tick Segerblom at the NRL Fan Hub. Picture: Jonathan Ng
In the first year, 61,000 US viewers tuned in for the match between Manly and South Sydney. In the second year, 371,000 watched Canberra beat Auckland.
The NRL is also still trying to partner with a wagering operator.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,”
V’landys told The Australian. “It’s certainly much harder than I expected it to be … The wagering part has certainly not been achieved at this stage. We’re still working on that.
“We’re into the third year, and we’ve got five years to do it. I have my reasons why it hasn’t happened. I know why.”
Unlike Australia, US bookmakers do not have to pay a product fee nor a percentage of turnover to sports – something that rakes in more than $80 million annually for the NRL domestically, the second-highest revenue earner outside its broadcast deal.
Major codes in the US such as the NFL, NBA, and NHL bank considerable revenue through sponsorship and advertising partnerships with the wagering giants FanDuel and DraftKings.
NRL: In a surprise to the players, the Canterbury Bulldogs were given access to the Las Vegas Raiders' state of the art training facility.
Online sports betting has exploded in the US since 2018 after the Supreme Court lifted a nationwide ban, handing authority to the states. In 2025, more than $US165bn ($233bn) was gambled on sports.
“We charge wagering operators to use our product where they don’t in the States with other sports,” V’landys said.
“They could see me as a bit of a danger coming into the market. They might be giving me the brush because they certainly don’t want to be paying the other sports to use their product. We are working on cracking it. There are several ways we are looking at it. I’m still confident we’ll get there, but it’s been a harder road than I expected.”
Rugby League: The NRL now has its sights set on playing games around the world, including Japan and England as well as playing games outside of Las Vegas in the USA.
While the NRL’s season-opening matches have also failed to rate on US television, the NRL says subscriptions to its Watch NRL app – which gives fans outside of Australia and New Zealand access to games – have skyrocketed, doubling since the first Vegas matches in 2024, and 67 per cent in the last year. Exact figures, though, are subject to commercial-in-confidence restrictions.
Cronulla Sharks and Penrith Panthers go to battle at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas last year. Picture: AFP
“We have grown that app significantly in America,” V’landys said. “Admittedly, it was from a low base, but it’s brought in a lot of revenue to us that we were never getting before.”
Just as critics scoffed at V’landys’ Vegas experiment, they are similarly dismissing his grand vision
for Global Round, which would see the NRL open the entire season in foreign locations, including Japan and the Middle East.
It’s not just grandstanding; platoons of staff at the NRL are said to be working on the concept.
Some clubs have privately expressed concerns about it diluting the interest in Vegas. Heavyweights Parramatta and Melbourne, who are in dispute over outcast winger Zac Lomax, have been earmarked for next year’s matches.
“No, I think it adds to Vegas,” V’landys said.
“The clubs that have already been to Vegas will be doing it in another jurisdiction. We’re working on next year. It might be a bit ambitious, because you know what I’m like: I wanted things done yesterday. The following year, 2028, may be probably more the case,” he said.
Broncos favourite Reece Walsh feeling the fan love in the inaugural season launch in Las Vegas in 2024. Picture: Grant Trouville Digital
“We’ve had enormous interest from the Middle East, where they’re prepared to give a substantial sponsorship. We’ve had interest from Hong Kong and Japan. Maybe we should play another game at Wembley with two NRL teams,” he said.
“They’re all markets that we can look at and, to be quite frank, the reason we look at those markets is because rugby union’s already in there.”
The 2026 NRL Las Vegas ad is here, with a cameo from NFL great Rob Gronkowski.
V’landys also parried questions about how much the Vegas experiment was costing the game. There was speculation the first year ran at a $15m loss – which the NRL denied.
“Well, this year we’re going to make a substantial, multimillion-dollar profit,” he said.
“The naysayers are wrong. It’s actually been a
very profitable franchise and continues to be so. That’s the reason we have to continue with it, because it’s generating significant new revenue for the game.”
www.nine.com.au
