Murdoch left Melbourne Storm to a betting entrepreneur. What a howler

August 13, 2026 — 4:06pm

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Buying sports teams has long been considered a vanity investment - the domain of billionaires and publicity-hungry self-promoters, who love mixing it up with famous talented athletes.

By way of example, only this week former Disney chief Bob Iger and Jared Kushner’s brother Josh spent a cool $US12.5 billion ($17.7 billion) to snap up the LA Lakers.

And for the most part, Australia’s NRL team owners fit the bill - at least on a scaled-down basis.

Billionaires James Packer and Mike Cannon-Brookes co-own the South Sydney Rabbitohs alongside acting A-lister Russell Crowe. Bermuda-based media baron Bruce Gordon owns half of the St George Illawarra Dragons, and the Murdochs control the Brisbane Broncos. Across the ditch, New Zealand billionaire businessman Mark Robinson owns his country’s NRL team, the Warriors.

For years, owning NRL clubs wasn’t viewed as a commercial investment.

But the stratospheric amounts paid over the past decade for media rights to the big football codes is one of a number of reasons that these teams are now becoming little gold mines.

That a Swedish private........

© The Age