Where does English (and European) Rugby League fit into all this.

[The Rocket]

NRL 2023: Las Vegas-bound NRL holds talks with $31 billion United States gambling behemoth FanDuel about live streaming rugby league matches (smh.com.au)

"V’landys has just returned from a trip to the US, where he accompanied Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to the White House and met United States President Joe Biden.

Shortly after the gala dinner, V’landys told this masthead: “We worked out that if all this goes to plan, it has the potential to generate hundreds of millions for rugby league. Not tens of millions – hundreds of millions."

Massive if certainly, but if the NRL do pull this off and we do see the amounts of money that V`landys is talking about flowing into the game where do you think European Rugby League fits into the scheme of things.

Comments like this seem to get a lot of traction @geordie saint "The NH, particularly England and the RFL, need to realise the NRL don’t want or need England to be successful." I`m not so certain, they (the NRL) might just want to make their own fortress impenetrable first.

 

[Coco]

The RFL / England / European Rugby does not fit into this. It's rather strange that everyone on here makes a lot of comments about different issues regarding rugby league but they can't seem to understand what the NRL are doing. 

They make it clear as possible they don't see Northern hemisphere Rugby League important. They made another comment now, which shows that they don't.

Now everyone is getting excited about a Kangaroo tour that they have scheduled for there own convenience. I state my opinion now. Boycott the games. Tell the RFL to cancel the tour. There is no interest from the fans. 

[ATLANTISMAN]

NFL will end up taking over the game in the UK its a no brainer

Edited November 11, 2023 by ATLANTISMAN

[Copa]

V’landys won’t die wondering.

If he pulls this off there’d be some big coattails the SL could ride on if they have the nous.

[The Rocket]

43 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

NFL will end up taking over the game in the UK its a no brainer

Taking over and running Rugby League or replacing Rugby League with NFL ?

[Whippet13]

The NRL is an Australian-focused organisation, it is run for the benefit of its member clubs, exactly the way SL is. English RL should be looking at what the NRL are doing strategically and develop proposals on how we can benefit from it, either independently or in conjunction with them. Unfortunately I don't see any signs of that happening. Maybe it is something IMG should be doing.

[Dave T]

19 hours ago, Coco said:

The RFL / England / European Rugby does not fit into this. It's rather strange that everyone on here makes a lot of comments about different issues regarding rugby league but they can't seem to understand what the NRL are doing. 

They make it clear as possible they don't see Northern hemisphere Rugby League important. They made another comment now, which shows that they don't.

Now everyone is getting excited about a Kangaroo tour that they have scheduled for there own convenience. I state my opinion now. Boycott the games. Tell the RFL to cancel the tour. There is no interest from the fans. 

I don't disagree with this. The NRL don't need Europe. It's an inconvenience. Even though England stages the biggest international tournaments and has the main interest for things like World Cups, in the grand scheme of things the returns are modest to the NRL and they can just afford to buy the SH nations. 

They have the NRL, Origin and SH internationals, they can do things like Vegas. They are insular and this is the outcome. 

[Lowdesert]

On 10/11/2023 at 12:18, The Rocket said:

NRL 2023: Las Vegas-bound NRL holds talks with $31 billion United States gambling behemoth FanDuel about live streaming rugby league matches (smh.com.au)

"V’landys has just returned from a trip to the US, where he accompanied Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to the White House and met United States President Joe Biden.

Shortly after the gala dinner, V’landys told this masthead: “We worked out that if all this goes to plan, it has the potential to generate hundreds of millions for rugby league. Not tens of millions – hundreds of millions."

Massive if certainly, but if the NRL do pull this off and we do see the amounts of money that V`landys is talking about flowing into the game where do you think European Rugby League fits into the scheme of things.

Comments like this seem to get a lot of traction @geordie saint "The NH, particularly England and the RFL, need to realise the NRL don’t want or need England to be successful." I`m not so certain, they (the NRL) might just want to make their own fortress impenetrable first.

 

Yes, I read this earlier in the week and doubt the long game (regarding euro/uk) is being considered much at present, other than the NRL/Vlandys immediate needs.

Given the weakness, financially, of the uk game it would be all give and no take back for him imo.  

 

[Toby Chopra]

4 hours ago, Dave T said:

I don't disagree with this. The NRL don't need Europe. It's an inconvenience. Even though England stages the biggest international tournaments and has the main interest for things like World Cups, in the grand scheme of things the returns are modest to the NRL and they can just afford to buy the SH nations. 

They have the NRL, Origin and SH internationals, they can do things like Vegas. They are insular and this is the outcome. 

I agree with all of that on their approach, but I do still find it odd how little effort they've made to boost the profile of the NRL in Europe and particularly Britain, even purely for their own benefit.

Europe is a wealthy, highly developed sports market that has multiple pay TV options and a familiarity with rugby, yet the NRL must be getting almost nothing for its TV rights here. Compare with the effort the NFL has made to introduce an "alien" sport in Europe. NRL is leaving money on the table in Europe for my mind.

[Dave T]

Just now, Toby Chopra said:

I agree with all of that on their approach, but I do still find it odd how little effort they've made to boost the profile of the NRL in Europe and particularly Britain, even purely for their own benefit.

Europe is a wealthy, highly developed sports market that has multiple pay TV options and a familiarity with rugby, yet the NRL must be getting almost nothing for its TV rights here. Compare with the effort the NFL has made to introduce an "alien" sport in Europe. NRL is leaving money on the table in Europe for my mind.

Maybe, it would be interesting to know how much value are in overseas sports in the UK market. My impression is that these things are worth diddly squat in general. 

[Lowdesert]

3 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Maybe, it would be interesting to know how much value are in overseas sports in the UK market. My impression is that these things are worth diddly squat in general. 

To Australia?

[Dave T]

2 minutes ago, Lowdesert said:

To Australia?

Yes, I'm not sure there are millions to be made in tv rights in the UK for the NRL. 

[The Rocket]

2 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Maybe, it would be interesting to know how much value are in overseas sports in the UK market. My impression is that these things are worth diddly squat in general. 

I remember that Super rugby used to be able to sell their rights into Europe for about $40m AUS, that was up until about two broadcast deals ago when they collapsed in value significantly, probably coinciding with South Africa`s withdrawal and the decline of the Australian teams, but still revelatory regarding their potential value.

[The Rocket]

17 minutes ago, Lowdesert said:

Yes, I read this earlier in the week and doubt the long game (regarding euro/uk) is being considered much at present, other than the NRL/Vlandys immediate needs.

Given the weakness, financially, of the uk game it would be all give and no take back for him imo.  

 

I just find it hard to imagine that there would be any benefit from letting the game in England going too far down the gurgler, but when and how would they step in.

[Lowdesert]

Just now, Dave T said:

Yes, I'm not sure there are millions to be made in tv rights in the UK for the NRL. 

They (Fox/NRL) seemed to pick up on showing  the Eng/Samoa tries as they happened and also highlights and the full game on YouTube - all before the RFL/SL got out of bed to post them, so there must be an interest.

 

[Dave T]

3 minutes ago, Lowdesert said:

They (Fox/NRL) seemed to pick up on showing  the Eng/Samoa tries as they happened and also highlights and the full game on YouTube - all before the RFL/SL got out of bed to post them, so there must be an interest.

 

Channels will absolutely take content, it's whether they will pay anything for them. 

[Dave T]

7 minutes ago, The Rocket said:

I remember that Super rugby used to be able to sell their rights into Europe for about $40m AUS, that was up until about two broadcast deals ago when they collapsed in value significantly, probably coinciding with South Africa`s withdrawal and the decline of the Australian teams, but still revelatory regarding their potential value.

Yeah, I recall reading something similar, and I think the market has changed a lot now. 

[Lowdesert]

1 minute ago, The Rocket said:

I just find it hard to imagine that there would be any benefit from letting the game in England going too far down the gurgler, but when and how would they step in.

I agree with that to an extent and there is no sensible reason to discount some of the uk imports the NRL scoops up.  I just don’t think the UK game it is in Vlandys sights right now.

That could be just for the dealings he has seen in the uk from afar.

[Lowdesert]

2 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Channels will absolutely take content, it's whether they will pay anything for them. 

Could be wrong as I’m not a marketer or media expert but wouldn’t any money paid go to the bbc?

[Dave T]

2 minutes ago, Lowdesert said:

Could be wrong as I’m not a marketer or media expert but wouldn’t any money paid go to the bbc?

I'm not sure what we're discussing tbh mate

[Toby Chopra]

It will only be a fraction of the domestic deals of course, but there's definitely some revenue to be had in the UK for overseas sports, and given the coverage is already there, it should be easy enough to tap.

The NFL has built a small but loyal audience in the UK, which gets around half the viewing figures of rugby league, but also has a similar number of subscribers to gamepass. All in, that'll be worth something in the low single millions in revenue to them, especially as the broadcaster has no production costs. The NFL says it has more customers in Germany now, so across Europe as a whole they're definitely found a way to extract extra revenues.

Whereas I can't see how the NRL currently gets much at all. Surely it's worth the effort to try and build it up a bit - at least as much effort as they're going to make in the US.

[rlno1]

I don't think the NRL will let England slip they are too important for the game long term. I think once they set this US income stream up we will then see them take over international RL.

What sort of money would a World Cup make from this gambling arm. 

We also have to remember the NRL is a partnership with the media ie. Fox/Nine and what they want they get hence the relegation of internationals from Origin during the Aussie season as Origin is the cash cow for all.

Edited November 11, 2023 by rlno1

[Gomersall]

13 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I'm not sure what we're discussing tbh mate

Does LD mean because the BBC were the host broadcaster they would be entitled to a feee if another company used their product?

[Barley Mow]

11 hours ago, The Rocket said:

I just find it hard to imagine that there would be any benefit from letting the game in England going too far down the gurgler, but when and how would they step in.

The benefit to them may be in letting it sink just far enough down the gurgler that NRL can come in as a saviour with control of the whole thing.

The UK comps essentially become feeders to NRL - effectively academies producing players for NRL clubs, barely paying full-time wages so that any decent player has no good option other than signing to an NRL club.

The best British players are then all playing in NRL. Then with the top tier international game having collapsed in Europe due to no SH opposition (as we are already seeing) an NRL controlled GB/England side can be set up to play SH nations down there.

The 'benefit' could be NRL obtaining control over the game worldwide, with all top level RL played in Aus/NZ (and perhaps PNG) and only lower tier matches up here (with maybe an occasional GB/England tour to the UK).

Edited November 12, 2023 by Barley Mow

[Lowdesert]

2 minutes ago, Gomersall said:

Does LD mean because the BBC were the host broadcaster they would be entitled to a feee if another company used their product?

Yes.

I thought it strange that they (Fox\Nrl) were giving live video updates at the time.  Would they do that and also the highlights & full match replay ‘at cost’?