Fri Feb 28

First Vegas, then the world? Why the NRL is eyeing international markets

Written by Tim Harcourt, Industry Professor and Chief Economist, University of Technology Sydney

This weekend, Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL) continues to trumpet its now annual pilgrimage ^[1] to open its season in Las Vegas.

While it’s only the second year of a five-year arrangement, the NRL claims its Vegas experiment has been a great success ^[2] at a time when the league has been in excellent health on and off the field ^[3].

But why is the Australian league hosting games in Las Vegas? And has this experiment paid dividends?

The NRL has made the bold decision to play games at Las Vegas.

The NRL’s Vegas play

There are a few reasons behind the NRL’s Vegas venture, with money at the heart of it.

It’s partly about future TV revenue and trying to grab a slice of the US sports gambling market.

And then there’s sponsors – it’s allowed the NRL to fish in the larger US pond in terms of corporate involvement in the game.

According to NRL CEO Andrew Abdo:

Outside of the benefit we get here domestically, in America we’ve now got sponsors that are incremental. We would not have had these sponsors had we not been growing in America. We’ve got a successful travel experience for fans, and we’ve got incremental subscriptions on Watch NRL, so you’ve got real revenue coming in which allows to us to now invest in expansion, and invest in a better product here.

The move is also part of a grand vision to grow the game internationally.

The NRL has announced a team from Papua New Guinea will join the league in 2028 ^[4]. It is also aiming for more integration with the Super League in England ^[5], perhaps one day eyeing franchises in the US and the Pacific.

The NRL is also conscious of the US National Football League’s venture into Melbourne in 2026 ^[6] and the competition that could bring for Pacific talent ^[7].

There may also be some football diplomacy at play. For example, some Sharks players visited the Los Angles firefighters ^[9] who fought the recent wildfires for some lessons on leadership and crisis management.

What happened last year?

The Vegas venture started a year ago with the Sydney Roosters playing the Brisbane Broncos and the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles playing the South Sydney Rabbitohs in a groundbreaking double-header.

These matches were the first NRL regular season games held outside Australia and New Zealand.

The crowd at Allegiant Stadium, which holds 65,000 fans, surpassed all expectations, with 40,746 turning up when about 25,000 were expected ^[10].

According to Steve Hill, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, more than 14,000 fans ^[11] flew from Australia for the games and many Aussie expats living in the US also made the trip.

In terms of TV audiences in Australia, the experiment was a big hit.

The Manly-South Sydney clash was the most-watched NRL game ever ^[12] on Fox Sports, with 838,000 fans tuning in. The Roosters-Broncos contest drew a Fox Sports audience of 786,000.

According to NRL chairman Peter V’Landys ^[13]:

There was a lot of success in Vegas last year that we didn’t even plan, and for me that was record viewership in Australia and […] record attendances at pubs and clubs.

Stateside reaction

Of course a lot of Aussies tuned in, but how about US viewers?

Around 61,000 tuned into Manly-South Sydney while 44,000 watched the Roosters and Broncos, which is well below the threshold of 100,000 viewers for profitable sports broadcasting, according to TV ratings experts Sports Media Watch ^[14] in the US.

The NRL set up fan zones and other activities in the build-up to the games in Las Vegas to attract US fans and entertain the visting Aussie tourists.

This year there will be even more on offer: there are four games instead of two, with the NRL bringing over the Canberra Raiders and the New Zealand Warriors, and reigning four-time premiers the Penrith Panthers and the Cronulla Sharks.

In addition, there’s an English Super League game, with the Wigan Warriors taking on Warrington Wolves, as well as an Australia-England women’s Test match ^[15].

Is it worth it?

So, has it been worth all the expense for the NRL?

According to V’Landys, the competition’s bottom line has been largely unaffected despite the significant costs of the games:

This year there’s a possibility that we’ll actually return a profit on Vegas and if not, it’ll be a small loss.

But he’s not leaving anything to chance. In fact, in a televised plea on US TV show Fox and Friends, V’Landys invited President Donald Trump to attend the game.

Will the president attend? Unlike a major US event like the Superbowl, where Trump was the first sitting president to attend ^[16], there’s not a big domestic constituency for rugby league, so chances are he won’t join the revelry in Vegas.

But it sounds like the NRL, on current projections, won’t need him.

With the introduction of a new team in PNG ^[17] in 2028 and a possible 19th outfit in Perth soon after, the NRL has showcased an impressive vision to take the game into new markets.

Even if a tiny proportion of the US market jumps on board rugby league, it can only help take the game closer to to its goal ^[18] of being the undisputed number one sport in Australia.