In another time, rugby league clubs were so reliant on poker machine revenue that officials would name certain machines after superstar players.
“Without that machine, we could never have afforded the player,” recalls a club boss from that time.
Poker machines, like players, were different then. You would yank the lever of the one-arm bandit and wait in anticipation for the rattle of coins in the tray below. Later that evening, dodgy leagues club officials were easily identified by their bulging pockets loaded up with coins from that night’s takings.
For decades, poker machine revenue allowed Sydney clubs to slowly milk the best players from Queensland, where they were illegal until 1991. The drain of quality players eventually crippled the Brisbane competition but also prompted the creation of State of Origin and the formation of the Broncos.
NRL clubs don’t rely on poker machine revenue from their licensed premises as they once did, thanks largely to an enormous annual grant from the league, but the link inexorably remains.
There’s a genuine fear among junior clubs, and especially those in the bush, about the ramifications of NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s cashless gaming reform.
In another time, these machines would be the backline of an entire rugby league club.Credit:Flavio Brancaleone
Simply, licensed clubs are the biggest commercial partner of the game in NSW. They rely heavily on funding from licensed clubs to survive.
In 2021, regional licensed clubs contributed $9,805,500 to rugby league of which $7,280,500 was invested in grassroots rugby league and $2,525,000 in NRL clubs and their associated junior leagues. At the same time, metropolitan licensed clubs invested $29,677,500 in rugby league comprising $17,097,000 in grassroots clubs and $12,580,500 in NRL clubs and their associated junior leagues.
Many have already reached out to the NSWRL about their concerns over Perrottet’s cashless scheme, but the NRL should heed their warnings, too.
As the NRL beats its own chest about how much revenue it generates, and the RLPA threatens strike action despite players being offered a 22 per cent pay rise, perhaps it’s time to consider what’s happening in grassroots football.
Why didn’t rugby league ensure its lifeblood, its very future, wasn’t hitched to the wagon of other people’s misery? Why has a code that spruiks billion-dollar-plus broadcast deals every five years fail its most important asset, its junior nursery?
The game’s foundation clubs, South Sydney and the Roosters, got head of the curve.
When Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court took ownership of Souths in 2006, one of their first moves was to separate the leagues and football clubs. Their second was to ban poker machines.
Their business plan was focused on generating revenue through membership, merchandise and sponsorship instead of poker machines. Crowe, in particular, despaired at the sight of those on welfare filling the gaming room floor every second Thursday when their benefits had been deposited. Souths Leagues is gone but the Rabbitohs brand is one of the most recognisable and sellable in the land.
Russell Crowe, centre, didn’t want Souths to be beholden to poker machines.Credit:AP
At the Roosters, billionaire chairman Nick Politis and his board long ago realised their club’s future couldn’t rely on an annual grant from Easts Leagues, which had been critical to the club’s success in the 1970s.
In the last decade, the club has amassed a bulging real estate portfolio that returns about $4 million a year. The Roosters’ net worth is estimated to be a whopping $150 million. They generate $6 million per year alone on jersey sponsorships.
An analysis of annual financial reports reveals that few NRL clubs rely heavily on their leagues clubs for funding, although some most certainly do. According to Canterbury’s latest figures, the leagues club is budgeted to give the football club $3.3 million this year.
As Crowe has discovered, it’s not always easy to snub punting profits. Less than two years after proposing his poker machine ban, Souths started up their own online betting website, Bunnybet.com.au, with 90 per cent approval from its members. When James Packer bought into the club, Crown’s logo was plastered all over the Rabbitohs jumper.
Rugby league is no different to other codes about its uneasy relationship with wagering revenue: if corporate bookmakers are reaping profits from their code, why shouldn’t the code too?
With his racing background, ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has won several battles in prising millions out corporate bookmakers who take bets on rugby league.
Still, footballers are not horses and rugby league should never become mere content to generate wagering turnover.
The NRL is pushing hard to hold a match in the US and while they spoon-feed us prosaic lines about Americans falling in love with rugby league, what they aren’t telling you is they want American gamblers to fall in love with rugby league.
V’landys has held serious discussions for the past year with Melbourne Storm chairman and bookmaker Matt Tripp, the founder of Sportsbet and Betr, about rugby league dipping its toe into the US wagering market, which has exploded in recent times.
Sports betting in the US was illegal outside of Nevada for decades, but the floodgates were flung open in 2018 following a favourable Supreme Court ruling. Now, almost every state allows online betting. Everyone from Halle Berry to Kevin Hart spruiks sportsbook ads throughout sports broadcasts.
It’s difficult to pin down just how big the market has become, but some experts estimate as much as US$57 billion ($87.6 billion) was turned over in US sports betting in 2021. Much of that was on basketball.
It was estimated at the start of this NFL season as many as 47 million Americans would have at least one bet. The Wall Street Journal this week reported Americans would bet US$16 billion ($23 billion) on Monday’s Super Bowl between Philadelphia and Kansas City.
Tripp has told V’landys he doesn’t believe holding an NRL match in the US is necessary to get a foothold in their wagering market. Simply, it can approach online bookmaking giants like FanDuel and DraftKings on its own, offering team lists, odds and other intellectual property in return for as much as two per cent of turnover.
The argument that if you can’t beat them, join them, is becoming increasingly hard to stomach as the masses revolt against the scourge of gambling and the neon claws in which it holds people and, sadly, rugby league.
Eddie’s team scoring media wins
New Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has done more media gigs than Eddie McGuire in the past two weeks, stirring interest in rugby like few can. What isn’t commonly known is that he has his own media adviser, David Pembroke, working for him.
It was one of the conditions he laid out while negotiating with Rugby Australia about his return. Jones made special mention of Pembroke, a former ABC journo who has his own media consultancy business, in his superb autobiography released in 2019. Whatever the arrangement, it’s working because Jones has provided more column inches about the Wallabies in a fortnight than predecessor Dave Rennie did in three years.
Bennett the star of Dolphins show
Despite his best efforts, Wayne Bennett is mellowing in his old age. How else to explain him agreeing to a three-part documentary on the formation of the Dolphins with cameras shadowing his every move?
The Dolphins documentary will debut on March 6.
The three-part Stan Original documentary series Dawn of the Dolphins will premiere on March 6. Fans will get their first look during Channel Nine’s coverage of the Māori v Indigenous All Stars game on Saturday.
Stan’s cameras tracked the Dolphins’ preparations the past year, from embryonic beginnings to the slow and steady recruitment of its roster. It should make for fascinating viewing, especially the parts when Bennett learns that Brandon Smith, Kalyn Ponga and Cameron Munster aren’t joining the club.
THE QUOTE
“I always feel like I am the best to ever play this game.” – So said LeBron James with a hairflick (I made that up) after breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s nearly 40-year-old record as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, immediately cranking up the GOAT debate.
THUMBS UP
West Australian Jack Robinson won the prestigious Billabong Pro on Thursday, beating Italian Leonardo Fioravanti in the final in tricky conditions at the treacherous Banzai Pipeline to become the new world No.1. He’s now “getting my legs ready” for a tilt at the world tile.
THUMBS DOWN
Dear Radelaide, please keep your filthy paws off our New Year’s Test – or I’ll cut you. Best, Sin City.
It’s a big weekend for … Alex Volkanovski, who is attempting to add a UFC lightweight title to his featherweight title when he meets Islam Makhachev at UFC 284 in Perth on Sunday. That will make him a “champ champ”, I’m told.
It’s an even bigger weekend for … the Australian cricket team as it wrestles with India in the first of a four-Test series in Nagpur. Pat Cummins hasn’t lost a Test since becoming captain, but Australia hasn’t won a series in India since 2004.
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