Rugby league confirms new 12-year partnership with media giants IMG

Rugby league and its major governing bodies, the Rugby Football League and Super League, have confirmed they have agreed a 12-year strategic partnership deal with media giants IMG to 'reimagine' the sport. The agreement follows the recent decision for the RFL and Super League to realign and form a new joint venture company to give the sport the best chance of long-term growth.

IMG, who have worked with sports such as UFC in the past, will be tasked with strategically repositioning and transforming rugby league, potentially allowing it to have new opportunities for long-term growth and attract newer audiences to the game.

The agency will initially focus on everything from competition restructuring, content production and innovation, domestic and international distribution of media rights to digital transformation. It is a landmark moment for the sport, who has constantly been besieged with administrative restructures and boardroom reshuffles, but has now struck a deal to bring a global brand to the sport to shape its future.

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“In recent years, an immense amount of work has gone on, in initially protecting the sport through the pandemic and then setting it on a course for real growth," the RFL chairman, Simon Johnson, said. "The Governance re-alignment was key and a prerequisite to attracting a partnership such as this. IMG is a global giant in the sports and entertainment industry and this alliance is fantastically exciting for our future.

"Coupled with the Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair World Cups which are set for the Autumn on home soil, I have no doubt that 2022 will now prove to be a watershed year in the history of Rugby League - and