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Off the Wall
Written by: Jeff WallFeb 17, 2009 8:56am
Another day dawns, another NRL club signs up with an online betting agency – with confirmation overnight that the Brisbane Broncos have signed up Sporting Bet Australia as a major sponsor. But this time it’s not just one club, but two with the premiers, the Manly Sea Eagles signing a deal with Centrebet, one of Sportingbet Australia’s main rivals. The ways things are at the premiers, perhaps Centrebet might end up owning the club as well? Apparently the Cowboys are close to signing a deal, and even the South Sydney Rabbitohs are believed to be considering doing the same. The Rabbitohs? The club whose owners want ditch poker machines! I wrote a couple of weeks ago that a “couple” of NRL clubs believe the answer to the economic downturn is to “punt” our way out of it. What an understatement – as of today the Titans, Sharks, Knights, Tigers, Broncos and Sea Eagles have deals with on line betting agencies. The way it is going that will soon be a clear majority. And you have to throw in the NRL itself which has an agreement with a major betting agency as well. As I observed yesterday, the horse has really bolted on this issue, so the NRL had better get used to dealing with its consequences. The latest deals with clubs, such as the those negotiated by the Broncos and the Tigers, are more about sponsorship and marketing and less about revenue sharing based on the betting activity of club members. The NRL and clubs with betting agency agreements should be taking a very close interest in the “balance of power” group in the Senate – the Australian Greens, Family First and Senator Nick Xenophon. The various agreements between NRL clubs and betting agencies are unquestionably going to deliver millions in revenue by way of sponsorship, ground signage, and revenue sharing. Just like the tobacco industry basically underwrote the games finances in the 60’s and the 70’s. When governments abolished tobacco advertising and then sponsorship rugby league scrambled to replace it – the strong drink companies largely filled the bill. That has more recently diminished – and remains under the very real threat of government imposed advertising bans. The gaggle who hold the balance of power in the Senate have precious little in common. But one common link – and perhaps the only one apart from horse trading with the government – is a very strong objection to the proliferation of gambling, and especially online gambling. To a very real degree, it is about the only thing they have in common with Kevin07! It is only a matter of time before Senator Xenophon gets back to his very reason for being in politics – the alleged social harm caused by gambling. Just as he horse traded a lazy billion or so for the Murray-Darling to secure his vote for the economic stimulus package last week, the day will come when he tries to horse trade tougher controls over gambling. One of the few areas the Federal Government can probably regulate gambling is online. It cannot outlaw state approved betting agencies, and it cannot ban poker machines, but it might be able to control online activity. The financial viability of rugby league and the very existence of online betting agencies – and their right to sponsor and advertise – are now irreversibly linked. The NRL has better get its collective mind across the “politics” of online betting, and it had better do so very soon. When tobacco advertising and sponsorship got the chop the then administrators were lucky that alcohol stepped in to fill the breach. Alcohol sponsorship is still important to the game at several levels. Its future has a definite question mark hanging over it. The NRL needs to get right across the “politics” of online betting – it is going to be yet another challenge for the game in the future, perhaps much sooner than we might believe.
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