At long last a couple of NRL clubs have come up with a strategy to ring fence the game from the damage the economic downturn is inevitably going to cause – and at least theirs is a better strategy than the nonsense that emanated from the NRL over the weekend!
The Sharks and the Knights believe that the citizenry are going to be very happy to punt their way out of the economic storm judging by their decision to enter into agreements with on line betting agency, Ezybet (according to the Daily Telegraph) but I suspect it is with Betezy which has an agreement with the Gold Coast Titans that has been up and running since last year.
If it is Betezy, then the operation is a fully licensed on line betting agency, operating out of the Northern Territory and approved by the NT Government. Betezy takes wagers on horse racing, the trots and the dogs as well as just about every sport with the exception of marbles!
It would seem that fans sign up with their favourite club – provided it is in an agreement with Betezy – and that the club gets a return from what is invested by fans. Time will tell what the return is, but it may well be the difference between survival and collapse for some clubs. That will depend on how many club members/supporters join up – and how much they punt!
The NRL will review the Sharks and Knights proposals, but given that the Titans agreement has been approved, it is hardly likely to reject them.
And in fact it is really in no position to do so because the NRL has its own agreement with TAB Sportsbet.
The involvement of more and more clubs with betting agencies is going to attract the attention of the anti-gambling lobby. Comments such as “In hard financial times such as these, more people seem to gamble so it makes sense to benefit off that” coming from the Sharks CEO are unhelpful!
The simple reality is that online betting is here, and here to stay. And the greatest growth area in online betting is not on horses, but on sport – including rugby league.
And one has to ask, is it any different, or more dangerous, being sponsored by a sports betting agency than by a brewery or a rum producer?
At least the Sharks and the Knights have a solution that is more credible than what the NRL itself has so far offered.
Over the weekend we learnt that David Gallop has issued a direction that all NRL executives are now required to fly economy class, and not business class as has been the practice.
This was apparently done in response to the impact on the NRL of the global economic downturn.
Even if the NRL executives are industrious travellers – as the media claim they are – then how much will that save? One hundred thousand?
If the NRL believes that the prevailing economic circumstances – and what will follow – can be overcome with such a weak response then they are living in dreamland.
The Australian Rugby Union has also cut out business class travel AND cut the salaries of the CEO, John O’Neill, and his senior executives, AND delivered an effective match payment cut to the Wallabies for the 2009 season.
If the NRL is serious, it will insist that the ARL immediately begin merger talks – so that the savings from the costly duplication of administration of our game can end, and the savings be used to help protect the game in very tough times.
Those savings – if they are genuine about it – will make the “no business class” edict seem like small change by comparison.
And what the game needs is not PR solutions, but substantial measures that can help secure its future in difficult, perhaps extremely difficult, times.
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