The National Rugby League is facing a "backlash from clubs following revelations its major sponsor, Telstra, has sold the code's digital rights to a company part-owned" by the Australian Football League, the NRL's "sporting enemy," according to Peter Badel of the COURIER MAIL. In a move "labelled a 'total embarrassment,' Telstra has brokered a deal with an AFL-funded company, Champion Data, to provide statistics to NRL clubs and the NRL's official website." The Australian Securities & Investments Commission's records show the AFL has "purchased two million shares" for a 49% stake in Champion Holdings. Its parent company, Melbourne-based Champion Data, holds an "exclusive licence to provide official AFL data." This means the AFL "stands to make money, inexplicably, by supplying NRL statistics to its biggest sporting threat in a digital NRL industry" worth an estimated A$120M ($109.3M). The NRL is also "ostensibly giving away intellectual property to the AFL via Champion," which will be able to obtain "personal details from thousands of NRL season-ticket holders." NRL club officials are "furious" and have labeled the move "farcical" and "want head-of-strategy Shane Mattiske sacked for his role in the digital-rights contract fiasco" (COURIER MAIL, 12/1).
