Going prime time
The double-header will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1 in America for the first time. The exposure, prime time on a Saturday night, will showcase “The Greatest Game of All” to a new audience in the tens of millions. Negotiations are ongoing to have the network show additional matches throughout the season.
“Who knows what the next broadcast rights deal looks like?” Abdo says. “Whether or not we decide to have a joint-venture model whereby we are partners in driving subscriptions or whether or not we decide to carve out markets independently as we do currently for Australia and New Zealand.
The NRL kicks off the season with a double-header in Las Vegas in March.CREDIT:NRL PHOTOS
“The way everything is sliced and diced is pretty dynamic. The good news is the commission has options.
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“Chances are, if you go back in time, that the broadcast rights deal will be done before the end of the [current] cycle.
“So the stronger position we’re in early in the cycle, the more negotiation and leverage we’re going to have to capitalise on a good deal midway through or towards the end of the cycle, not at the end of five years.”
Leveraging the app
It was a broadcast conversation four years ago that indirectly steered the NRL to Las Vegas. Abdo and Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys pitched rugby league to heavyweights at content giants including Amazon and Facebook. The multinationals were not receptive.
“Every time we said that our population is 26 million, they looked at us with a deep stare and said ‘Why are you here? There are 40 million in California, your market is minute,’” V’landys recalls.
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“They were right and it made me think. America has 340 million people and we have this great asset called Watch NRL and sports wagering has absolutely exploded in the states.”
The Watch NRL app provides fans outside of Australia and New Zealand access to all men’s and women’s competition games, as well as marquee representative matches such as State of Origin. The cost to Americans is $US169 ($AU229) a year and only 3000 have subscribed.
“If we can get 1 per cent over five years, that’s 34 million people,” V’landys says. “You times that by $US169, that’s around $577 million. Even if we were to get half of that, that’s more than $250 million.
“There are 300,000 Australians living in the US. Even if we got half of those, that’s an extra $25 million. It’s huge.”
Bold wager
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At a time when there is a tightening of restrictions on sports wagering in Australia, they are being loosened in the United States. According to American Gaming Association research, a record 68 million Americans – or 26 per cent of the population – wagered $23.1 billion on Super Bowl LVIII. That is an increase of 35 per cent on estimates for the previous year, and the numbers are expected to continue climbing.
Super Bowl LVIII was a betting bonanza.CREDIT:AP
The NRL has made no secret of its ambition to cash in. “Sports wagering is being deregulated in America so rapidly and because it’s becoming such a great way to engage with fans in America, sports fans are embracing the opportunity to bet on matches,” Abdo says. “This is a great avenue where wagering operators will be able to showcase our sport amongst all the other sports that they run a market on, to US fans.
“This is a great avenue to acquire fans.”
The NRL hasn’t yet settled on a sports wagering partner in the United States. One option is to sign an exclusive arrangement that results in the operator streaming games to punters. Another is to partner with several bookmakers, who would provide odds on matches.
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Get your tickets
Allegiant Stadium has a capacity of 65,000. To date, 27,000 tickets have been sold. About half of those have been to Australian fans embarking on the ultimate footy trip. A further 10,000 have been snapped up by Americans (prices start from $US19) and the rest have been taken up by other international travellers. A sellout is unlikely.
Andrew Abdo at an NRL promotion at Allegiant Stadium in December.CREDIT:GETTY
“It’s not the marker for success though for this project,” Abdo says. “The marker for success is how interested we can get US fans in following our sport throughout the season over the next couple of years.
“Obviously, we want to start with a bang. Anything that gets us deep into 30,000-40,000, that’s going to be a great atmosphere. That is going to be a hook that brings people back year in year out.”
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Sponsorship opportunities
Neither the NRL or its clubs have jagged a major sponsor to date as a direct result of the Vegas voyage. However, the NRL has been able to keep costs down through a raft of partnerships. The Las Vegas Tourism Authority has invested, and deals have been brokered with hotel, travel and flight partners.
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“Those were bought off plan,” Abdo says. “They are people who believe in our game and have come forward with significant investment.
“We have a number of Australian multinationals and Australian sponsors that are interested in growing their products in America. This provides them with a unique opportunity to do that. But equally what a great opportunity for our clubs to think about foreign investment from a sponsorship and from a membership perspective.”
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