Chief executive Paul Lakin won Hull KR’s bid for Las Vegas and admitted: “It’ll be like Amsterdam on steroids!” Table-toppers Rovers have been chosen along with Leeds to play in Sin City on February 28 next year.
As part of the NRL’s season launch, they follow Wigan and Warrington’s lead who featured in Super League’s first-ever game in the USA in March. St Helens, Hull and Huddersfield had also expressed an interest to head Stateside in 2026. But ambitious Rovers and eight-times champions Rhinos have got the nod to follow in the footsteps of this year’s huge success.
Lakin admitted: “We’re really excited and it’s a fantastic opportunity for us. First of all, Wigan and Warrington have created this chance. They came up with the idea and laid the platform for ourselves and Leeds to try and make it even bigger and better.
“The facts from Vegas this year are that there was a 3.1 billion online reach so for eyeballs it’s undoubtedly the biggest Super League game of the year. We were told it’s the equivalent of 200 years of brand marketing budget to buy the same amount of media space as that one weekend generated.
“It’s just on a completely different level and an opportunity we had to take. I do believe in expansion. We took a friendly game over to Amsterdam in January. I suppose this now is Amsterdam on steroids!”
When ex-Stoke City chief commercial officer Lakin returned to rugby league with Rovers in 2020, the East Yorkshire club had just finished bottom of Super League. But under his leadership, they have transformed on and off the field.
They reached the Challenge Cup final in 2023, a maiden Grand Final last year and are back at Wembley next month to face Warrington for the Cup.
He admitted: “It’s fair to say with the growth of the club, if this opportunity was two years ago – and certainly three years ago – I don’t think we’d have been considered [for Vegas]. So it does show where our standard is in the game and this is just yet another step forward for us with what will be worldwide media coverage.”
He added: “You are only as good as the people around you. And we only achieved what we achieved because we aligned as one club. But the projects on our list at the moment are Wembley in three weeks, [hosting] Coldplay in August – the biggest act to ever come to the region – and now we’re announcing Vegas.
“It’s a fantastic bunch of projects to work on. And I’m particularly pleased we’re playing Leeds Rhinos as we have a great relationship with them. I think, and clearly Wigan and Warrington did this year, you need to have a collaborative approach going out there.
“I’m really pleased it’s two teams from Yorkshire. It makes it a battle of Yorkshire as it was two teams in the North West this season. Whoever it is in the year after, hopefully they’ll learn from our experiences and make it even better.”