Boss has game’s number

HE’S the ambitious accountant who now finds himself in charge of the NRL.

Unknown by the vast majority of fans at the start of the week, interim chief executive Andrew Abdo has steadily built a significant presence within Rugby League Central.

The game’s chief commercial officer since 2016, Abdo’s department has been a focal point of the NRL’s business and he has evolved by working under the game’s most powerful identities.

While Todd Greenberg had been the game’s CEO for the entirety of his time on the executive, staff at Moore Park have noted Abdo was not far below him. Abdo recently travelled to the US with ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys for high-powered talks with Lachlan Murdoch and global streaming companies. He has also sat in on meetings with broadcasters for the past month, having been behind the game’s brand and image for several years.

His rise from an accountant, who had lived in Australia for less than two years when he joined the NRL, coincides with one of the game’s biggest setbacks: the coronavirus pandemic.

South African-born and educated, Abdo’s first job in Australia in 2012 was as a director for accounting firm Deloitte.

It was there he was first exposed to rugby league, before he was hired by the NRL to work alongside long-time marketing chief Paul Kind.

From there, Abdo worked on strategy under head of operations Jim Doyle before becoming a key adviser of thenCEO David Smith.

Then in a staffing reshuffle he moved back into the commercial department under Michael Brown, where his profile and responsibilities grew.

Abdo’s first major project was a revamp of staffing in the department that he drove, presented to the commission and executed.

“And then we got to negotiations,” Brown said.

“I was driving the renegotiation with Sportsbet as our betting provider, and he said: ‘Can I do this and share it with you?’

“So he was right there and did a brilliant job working internally with their lawyers and working on best outcomes, which he did fabulously. I rate him really highly.” One of the main criticisms from Abdo’s detractors is his lack of a sporting, or more importantly, rugby league, background.

But Brown insisted that was irrelevant as Abdo’s feel for the code developed. “He was a great analyst,” Brown said.

“You give him numbers, crowd figures, comparisons, financial figures ... he was brilliant at analysing them.”