Jamie Peacock on Las Vegas

In his latest Daily Mirror column, Jamie Peacock discusses this weekends trailblazing Betfred Super League game in Las Vegas.

The build-up around the first-ever Betfred Super League game in America has been amazing.

The show in Las Vegas is certainly going to be an event that has lots of eyeballs on it who are not regular viewers of our comp’ and that’s brilliant.

The amount of media exposure has been superb. It’s not just great for the clubs concerned but the game of rugby league as a whole.

Having Wigan v Warrington there with the NRL double-header and also England women’s Test v the Australian Jillaroos just adds to even more value to what was already a superb event run by the NRL last year.

But the massive challenge with rugby league is we don’t do things for long enough periods: Vegas now needs to be sustained.

If the aim of rugby league as a whole is to make a dent in the  huge, ginormous American sports media market, then doing it for two or even four years in a row won’t really cut it.

When you look at the way the NFL has tried to expand their game it’s been consistent and deliberate.  They realise it takes time to do it and that’s what rugby league needs to do with Vegas.

Having different teams there year on year keeps that side of it fresh, certainly for fans and casual viewers, too. It’d be great to see Leeds, Hull KR or St Helens there in 2026, clubs like that.

But that’s the key with it: consistency and giving it long enough to shine. We need it to be double digits at least, investing in ten years and more.

Read the full article on the Daily Mirror website.