He owns the Las Vegas Raiders and is NFL royalty. This is Mark Davis’ advice to NRL

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You never know who you might run into in Sin City.

Just as this column and a couple of colleagues were about to leave the training base of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders after the Bulldogs wrapped up training there, in drove the owner of the NFL team, Mark Davis, in his Aston Martin sports car.

Davis comes from NFL royalty – his late father Al Davis was one of the most iconic figures in the sport’s history, coaching the Raiders and then owning and managing them for nearly 40 years, a stretch that included three Super Bowl titles.

Known for his catchphrase “Just win, baby”, Davis snr’s ownership passed to his son, Mark, with his death in 2011, and the Raiders later relocated from their decades-long home in Oakland, California to Las Vegas.

He now controls the $US7.7 billion ($10.9b) franchise, which Forbes ranks as the ninth-most valuable in the NFL, and has a $US14 million ($19.8m) mansion shaped like the Raiders’ home ground, Allegiant Stadium.

Davis told us he hoped to be at the NRL round-one double header at the stadium on Sunday Australian time, and had a couple of tips for rugby league as it attempts to gain a foothold in the US.

“I think having more games and just people getting a chance to see it, and what it is,” Davis said. “And then, obviously, you need to get on television. You need that exposure.”

The two NRL matches this weekend and the English Super League game between Hull KR and Leeds will be aired on US television, with Canterbury’s clash with St George Illawarra to feature in prime time on the main Fox Sports channel here.

Davis’ point was about the upside of being on American screens more regularly.

Who knows if Davis will be keen to scout more players, but he was quick to admit: “I tell you what, they are tough enough”.

The Raiders have already brought one Australian to Las Vegas – the giant Laki Tasi, a 21-year-old who grew up playing rugby league and rugby union in Brisbane before coming onto the NFL’s radar.

“He’s doing good,” Davis said of Tasi, who was signed to the team’s practice squad last year and is yet to play in the NFL. “He’s got to learn how to play, but what a big, big, big body specimen, man. He’s something else. We love him.”

Saints come marching into town

A poster at the Ole Red bar on the Las Vegas Strip

The Dragons had dinner at the appropriately named Ole Red live music bar in Las Vegas after flying in on the weekend.

They have made the venue, across from the Strip from the Bellagio, their fan hub for the whole week – with Dragons flags displayed outside and every staff member wearing a St George Illawarra shirt. Even the lifts inside the venue feature photos of Red V fullback Clint Gutherson.

Expect their very own “young red”, Dylan Egan, to do his share of media commitments in town this week.

Clubs that have come to Las Vegas in the past two years have welcomed supporters to venues for one-off fan nights, but the Dragons have gone all out by taking over Ole Red for the whole week.

PVL goes Troppo

A day before he spruiked record revenue for rugby league, another passion project of ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys bore fruit when short film festival Tropfest finally returned to Sydney for the first time in seven years.

V’landys’ passion for supporting the local film industry is not well known by league fans. Fewer still will be aware he once played a banker in a miniseries about disgraced businessman Alan Bond.

“I tell people I had a role in Bond,” V’landys said. “I’m on the board of Tropfest, and it was great to see it back on the weekend. They had more than 30,000 people there.

“Sarah Murdoch, [actor] Bryan Brown, [advertising guru] Richard Weinstein, John Polson, who founded Tropfest, and myself realised there was a need for pathways for young Australian film-makers, similar to how we have pathways in rugby league. Together, we all brought Tropfest back to help discover our local talent.”

Vegas, Abu Dhabi to host openers

Still on V’landys, the five clubs yet to travel to Vegas – Wests Tigers, Parramatta, Melbourne, Gold Coast and the Dolphins – remain the front-runners for next year’s edition, he said, despite a push for NRL games to be played elsewhere abroad in the opening round.

We told you on Monday the Tigers would have officials in Vegas to assess whether the club should nominate the for 2027 season opener. Recruitment boss Shannon Gallant was on the Qantas flight out of Sydney late Sunday.

V’landys has already spoken about taking round one games to London, Japan and even Hong Kong. But cop the tip: Abu Dhabi is the early favourite.

US government backs NRL push

The president himself may not be coming, but there will be at least one member of the Trump administration in Las Vegas for the NRL this week.

Sarah B Rogers, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, will deliver the closing speech at the NRL’s business of sport conference on Friday. Her topic is the cultural value of sport in connecting nations, as well as US priorities.

The speakers at the conference include Las Vegas Raiders president Sandra Douglass Morgan, Brisbane 2032 Olympics president Andrew Liveris and Marc Badain, the president of Major League Baseball’s Athletics, who are shifting from California to Las Vegas in 2028.

Others on the list are Angela Ellisk the vice-president of original content and entertainment at NFL Media, and Stacy Sonnenberg, the head of global sports finance at investment banking giant Goldman Sachs.