Look beyond the circus, and it’s clear NRL’s Las Vegas gamble is paying dividends

Las Vegas: The Eagles’ much acclaimed run at the Sphere is the biggest show in Las Vegas at the moment.

The legendary band has played dozens of concerts at the state-of-the-art, immersive venue since 2024, the latest on Saturday night local time, with the 18,000-strong crowd including the Canterbury Bulldogs squad.

After arriving in town on Thursday, it was the last chance for Cameron Ciraldo’s highly fancied team to get a taste of the nightlife before getting down to business at training on Sunday.

Their opponents here next weekend, St George Illawarra, were also heading for an evening out after landing on Saturday, the last of the four clubs to arrive for the third edition of the NRL’s roll of the dice in Las Vegas.

Newcastle and North Queensland players were given similar latitude a week out from their first-round meeting, and from all reports, there has yet to be an inflatable baseball bat swung in anger.

Between them, the Knights, Cowboys and Dragons boast an array of stars such as Kalyn Ponga, Tom Dearden and Valentine Holmes.

But it is the Bulldogs, considered the only genuine premiership contenders among the quartet of NRL sides in action in Las Vegas, who shape as the headline act.

They also have, by the far, the largest contingent in the United States. Not only did they add two players to the standard touring party of 22, covering the cost themselves, but they have brought the entire front-office staff along, too, as a reward for a successful year off the field in 2025 as well as on it. The total Canterbury roll call, taking in players, coaching staff and other employees? Eighty five.

In addition, the club is expected to have the biggest group of travelling fans among the four Australian sides and the two English Super League clubs – Hull KR and Leeds – who will open proceedings at Allegiant Stadium.

There is already a smattering of Bulldogs, Dragons, Knights and Cowboys faithful here, presumably with deep enough pockets to brave the notoriously high prices for a week.

Just how many make the journey may help determine where the NRL’s US adventure stands after three years.

The first two instalments of the Las Vegas gamble have come with some of the brashness that characterise the casino and entertainment mecca.

There were projections of a giant American television audience, driven by the appeal of “no pads and no helmets” to the NFL-enthralled masses, and a bid to secure a jackpot for the game here through sports betting.

They haven’t materialised, and the narrative about cracking the highly competitive US market was over the top.

Beyond the bluster, though, it’s hard to argue the venture hasn’t been worth it.

Matches have been attended by more than 40,000 spectators, and last year’s clash between the Raiders and Warriors was watched by a respectable 371,000 free-to-air viewers in the US as well as 30,000 on the WatchNRL app.

Setting international ambitions aside, taking the first two games of the season abroad has, just as importantly, further bolstered a code already thriving in Australia.

Although not on the same scale as State of Origin or the grand final, the NRL all of a sudden has another tent pole event.

Las Vegas has produced some of the highest rating games of the regular season, providing a launchpad for the year that is the envy of the AFL and, for players, supporters and anyone else fortunate enough to travel for it, a prized experience.

In the backdrop to this year’s NRL showcase are the negotiations for a new broadcast rights deal that Peter V’landys, the Australian Rugby League Commission chairman, hopes will deliver record-breaking returns for the sport.

The US experiment and the flagging of a possible future round-one matches in locations such as Dubai, London and Hong Kong as well as Las Vegas, is aimed at building more revenue from the NRL’s overseas rights in coming years.

That international reach could be boosted by its links with global sports streamer DAZN, which effectively became the game’s largest partner last year when it bought most of Foxtel from News Corp and which counts Saudi Arabia’s sports investment fund as a minor stakeholder.

The guts of the money bankrolling the NRL, however, is in its five-year, $2 billion Australian broadcast deal and along with pending expansion to 19 teams, taking the first round to Las Vegas adds potential value to the overall product.

Rugby league is endeavouring to cash in on Las Vegas as the city endures a marked decline in tourism.

Visitor numbers last year fell 7.5 per cent from 2024, the most significant slide since records were first kept in 1970 aside from during the pandemic.

There were still more than 38 million visitors to the Strip and its surrounds last year, so the presence of 15,000 or 20,000 Australian league fans this week isn’t about to reverse the trend.

But as it returns for the third year of a five-year contract in Nevada, the NRL is very much welcome back.