Footy codes, betting and bigotry
The major sporting bodies are in bed with online bookmakers, securing millions in fees. But what do they do when racist messages to players are fuelled not only by hate, but dud bets?
Be competitive. That’s the expectation of the Wallabies for their three-Test series against the British and Irish Lions.
Be competitive.
That alone sums up how far Australian rugby has fallen in the 12 years since the Lions last played here when they won an epic series 2-1, nailing the decider in Sydney.
The Wallabies lost the first Test in Brisbane by two points after Kurtley Beale slipped over attempting a penalty goal on the last play of the night before bouncing back in Melbourne a week later in one of the most intense matches I’ve ever seen.
I’d even bought the ticket to Marvel Stadium that night and, like most people, left feeling Australia would snatch the series in the final match.
But no.
The Lions made six changes, including the controversial dumping of centre Brian O’Driscoll, and won convincingly.
Rugby in this country still meant something then. At the very least, you knew when the Wallabies played, and most of their players.
When the teams take the field at Suncorp Stadium for the first Test on Saturday night, many fans will only vaguely know who they are watching.
The Lions tour supposedly marks the beginning of a “Golden Decade” for rugby on these shores. That’s the treasure Rugby Australia chief executive and former Wallaby Phil Waugh is selling, anyway.
RA is coy about how much it will make from the tour, but it’s widely predicted to bring in more than $100m in revenue, which would dramatically turn around the $36.8m deficit that was recorded last year.
Further riches are expected from hosting the 2027 men’s and 2029 women’s world cups, and then on to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, at which the men’s and women’s sevens teams will be pushing for gold.
Which is all well and good if you forget how many times RA has blown past windfalls. How can the men with the best education money can buy so magnificently stuff up their own sport?
The success of the code is inexorably linked to the Wallabies, but its greatest dilemma is keeping its own talent. That’s where Waugh might want to throw some of the $100m when it drops.
Cashed-up NRL clubs have gamed rugby’s pathways system, throwing the chequebook at emerging talent in GPS schools. Some pay their school fees. Rugby can’t compete. The Scots College in Sydney’s east is fast becoming a conveyor belt of talent for the Sydney Roosters.
A decade ago, Angus Crichton played for the Australian Schoolboys rugby union team two years straight.
When he left Scots, he wanted to stay in the sport and join the Waratahs but was told he wouldn’t be playing firsts until he turned 22.
He signed with South Sydney soon after and went on to win a premiership with the Roosters, dominate State of Origins for NSW, and represent Australia.
On his day, he’s the best edge backrower in the game. A beast. How shameful for rugby that he’s not wearing gold in Brisbane on Saturday night.
Imagine Crichton wreaking havoc at inside centre or breakaway, running hard and direct and giving the Wallabies the sort of go-forward they’ve lacked for years.
For every Joseph Suaalii rugby has taken back from league, there’s a handful of players like Angus Crichton.
It doesn’t help when the Albanese government is funding the opposition.
As revealed in these pages earlier this month, the NRL intends to invade the Pacific, shamelessly using $250m of taxpayer money to pick off rugby-mad nations such as Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. Meanwhile, the professional leagues of Europe and Japan are picking up talent with greater regularity.
“Rugby sits a fair way down the ladder in our sporting ecosystem at the moment,” former Wallabies captain James Horwill admitted to the BBC this week.
Losing talent is only part of rugby’s problem. Games are a hard watch, strangled with endless scrum resets and Television Match Official decisions.
Even purists agree the pace of the game needs to pick up.
Despite all of this, we should delay our judgment. Rugby isn’t in the toilet, regardless of what the NRL says.
The game has turned things around, if ever so slightly, since the end of 2023 when Wallabies coach Eddie Jones abandoned his team to coach Japan and RA chairman Hamish McLennan was pushed out.
RA is hardly backstroking in money but the newly signed broadcast deal with Channel 9 is a 30 per cent improvement on the last one, and more if the national team wins some matches.
A renewed focus on high-performance and the gift that is coach Joe Schmidt has helped take the Wallabies from 10th in the world to sixth. Not ideal, but it’s an improvement on the last World Cup under Jones.
They mightn’t be strong enough to beat the Lions. It will surprise if they snatch a Test, or if one goes to the wire like the first two matches 12 years ago.
But let’s get around these Wallabies. For now. As long as they’re competitive.
League of its own
Meanwhile, the breakaway rugby competition R360 is about to become NRL 360 if the number of rugby league players linked to it is any indication.
Newcastle Knights captain Kalyn Ponga, New Zealand Warriors star Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, and Melbourne Storm players Ryan Papenhuyzen and Nelson Asofa-Solomona are all in R360’s sights, according to various reports.
We told you last month that R360 was coming for NRL stars and that moment has seemingly arrived. As soon as player managers in this part of the world became involved, it was going to turn into a media-driven circus.
Ponga has already declared he will see out his deal at the Knights until the end of 2027. If an NRL player does agree to join, it’s likely they will sign a heads of agreement, as several Lions players reportedly did months ago, all contingent of course on the competition coming to life.
And what chance of that?
Rugby unions around the world, especially in the UK, don’t seem as concerned and jittery as NRL clubs. Those who have seen the proposal from the consortium headed by England captain Mike Tindall continue to tell me it “will never happen”.
It’s also unclear if Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is backing the league.
Betting on bigotry
A modern-day racism scandal in sport looks something like this: dickhead watching footy in his undies at home doesn’t like what he sees on TV; dickhead courageously sends message from an anonymous account on social media to athlete; athlete looks at DMs after match and is deeply offended; after years of being subjected to vile abuse, athlete draws line in the sand, screenshots abusive message and posts it on social media, calling out the dickhead; governing body fires off media statement condemning abuse; media reports what the governing body says; incident soon forgotten.
Port Adelaide’s Jase Burgoyne and St Kilda young gun Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera called out online racism after their respective games last Sunday.
Like every Indigenous person who has been exposed to a lifetime of hate, they must wonder if it will ever stop.
The AFL was quick to condemn the attacks with chief executive Andrew Dillon saying there’s “no place for this sort of behaviour in our game and society” and so on and so forth.
Nowhere in the AFL statement was the real motivation behind the racist attacks mentioned: sports betting. The dickhead who sent the messages to Wanganeen-Milera was seething about him having only 24 touches.
“Can’t f---ing touch the ball once more,” read one of the charming messages. An exotic betting option in AFL is whether a player has 25 or more touches.
At least Port football manager Chris Davies was prepared to discuss the impact wagering is having on young footballers.
“The number of peanuts that I’ve seen messages from over time … they’re issues that the AFL has to deal with,” Davies said. “We can’t hide from where the money comes from into the game, but equally you can do whatever you can to support the players in these types of situations.”
This is the uncomfortable reality major sports like the AFL face as they dance with the wagering devil: take a percentage from online bookmakers who field bets on their matches while players receive abhorrent abuse for mucking up someone’s same-game multi.
Earlier this year, the AFL angered bookmakers when it bumped up its product fees for fielding bets on its matches. It makes an estimated $40 million a year from sports betting — about $10 million less than the NRL.
ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys — who runs Racing NSW in his lunch hour — unashamedly considers rugby league to be a vehicle for gambling revenue.
Indeed, the chief motivation in starting the season in Las Vegas is about grabbing a slice of the booming US sports wagering market, although no deal has been struck with the likes of FanDuel or DraftKings as V’landys promised three years ago.
“What wagering does is add a little bit more entertainment onto the already fantastic product,” V’landys told me in an interview in 2022. “If I have a bet on a first tryscorer, it gives you a little more enjoyment.”
Yes, he said that with his outside voice.
Calypso collapse
Australia completed their three-match evisceration of the West Indies with fast bowler Mitchell Starc taking his 400th wicket in his 100th match with the fastest five-wicket haul in history, while Scott Boland took a hat-trick in dismissing the opposition for 27, the second lowest total after New Zealand’s 26 against England in 1955. If this tour of the Caribbean turns out to be Australia’s last, what a way to go.
How could Cricket Australia, in all seriousness, entertain another trip to that part of the world when the opposition is so weak?
Cricket West Indies president Kishore Shallow has called on Windies greats Sir Clive Lloyd, Sir Vivian Richards and Brian Lara to join a committee to address the slide, but you sense it’s cosmetic.
This remark from legendary fast bowler Michael Holding to Nine Newspapers in the aftermath of the Sabina Park humiliation says everything you need to know: “To be honest, I have moved on from cricket. The authorities are doing whatever they feel like, irrespective of what anyone says. So I see no need to continue beating my head against a stone wall. I don’t even watch the games anymore, so I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”
More Coverage
Add your comment to this story
‘Trying not to tear up’: Son of a gun’s tribute to legendary father
Thrown into the deep end for his run-on debut in the gold jersey, the son of Wallabies legend Michael Lynagh, Tom, had such a strong game in a beaten side it’s allowed some to dream of World Cup glory.
Four try hero, hot boot: Sydney 1st Colts rugby gets interesting
Just three rounds remain in Sydney Rugby Union 1st Colts and there is still plenty to play for, including spots in the finals series. Top try scorers, a hot boot and Rd 15 result wrap
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout