NRL player agent pockets $700,000 for broking Greyhound NSW sponsorship deal with betting business

Greyhound club officials across NSW are furious that an NRL player agent was paid almost $700,000 to negotiate a deal between them and the industry’s major sponsor Ladbrokes.

The three year deal between Ladbrokes and NSW racing clubs is worth $9 million.

Greyhound club officials across NSW are furious that an NRL player agent was paid almost $700,000 to negotiate a deal between them and the industry’s major sponsor Ladbrokes.

Details of the deal with player agent Daniel O’Loughlin emerged after Greyhound Racing NSW on Monday announced a string of redundancies and a 20 per cent cut in distributions to regional clubs.

The three year deal between Ladbrokes and all the NSW racing clubs is worth $9 million with Mr O’Loughlin securing $230,000 a year for his part in pulling it together.

But regional club officials are furious that money that could have been used to support regional racing and secure jobs was paid to an outside contractor.

“The clubs knew nothing at all about a third party being paid to negotiate the deal,” a clubs spokesman said.

“It’s a real bitter pill to swallow. Here are the clubs being asked to take a sizeable haircut in funding next year while at the same time more than half-a-million dollars has been paid to a third party consultant.

“At the end of the day Ladbrokes was the only way forward for a deal to be struck and in the past the clubs had been successfully negotiating their own deals,” he said.

Mr O’Loughlin said he was very proud of the work he did in uniting all of the clubs with one sponsor for the first time.

“It was an extensive process that resulted in a record deal for the participants in the industry,” he said.

The club’s spokesman said the criticism did not sit with Mr O’Loughlin but with bosses at GRNSW who had not used their in-house team to negotiate with Ladbrokes.

He said Greyhound Racing Victoria secured a similar deal with Sportsbet with their own commercial team taking the lead.

GRNSW chief executive Rob Macauley. Picture: Adam Yip

GRNSW chief executive Rob Macauley said the organisation’s chief commercial officer Rachel Bessis was involved in the deal with Ladbrokes but that Mr O’Loughlin had taken the lead.

“We engaged someone who was eminently qualified to do the work,” he said. “Rachel worked on the deal but we wanted to get the best possible deal and so we needed a specialist.

“We ended up with a better deal than has ever been done before,” he said.

Mr Macaulay said the deal had secured cash for regional racing and denied a string of allegations that have been levelled against him including that a member of head office staff receives a more than $500,000 a year bonus thanks to the greyhound rehoming program.

“That is a complete furphy,” he said. “Greyhound rehoming is a major part of our business and for a dozen people that KPI is a big thing but there is no rehoming bonus or commission.”

Ladbrokes declined to comment.

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