Rugby World Cup 2015: ARU takes big punt on Wallabies

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The Australian Rugby Union has placed a bet worth up to $300,000 on the Wallabies winning the World Cup.

The bet covers the ARU for up to $3.1 million in tournament win bonuses they have agreed to shell out should the Wallabies bring home the William Webb Ellis trophy at the end of this month.

Hedging bets: ARU chief Bill Pulver. Photo: Getty Images

Each member of the 31-man squad would pocket a $100,000 win bonus, while a $10,000-a-game match payment for every player named in the match-day 23 will be pooled and split evenly at the end of the tournament. It is not known whether the ARU has covered all or just some of its risk, but given the parlous financial state of the game until recently, it is likely to have hedged a substantial portion.

And it would not have required ARU chief Bill Pulver to walk into the Mosman TAB on a Saturday morning. World Rugby regulations prohibit anyone connected with a team placing a bet with a bookmaker, so it is common practice to engage an insurance company, which then places the bet directly with a bookmaking firm.

The bonus arrangement, agreed with the Rugby Union Players Association in July, means the players have already guaranteed themselves about $44,500 in bonuses just by making it to Sunday's semi-final against Argentina. The team will receive nothing else on top of their $10,000 match payment for playing Sunday's knockout game, but will earn $100,000 each – plus their pooled match payments – if they make it to the final and become the first team in World Cup history to win the tournament three times.

Pulver would be simultaneously toasting their success and reaching for the chequebook, with a total bill of about $4.71 million.

The ARU would not provide details of the wager, but said the arrangement was "not inconsistent" with what they had in place for other campaigns. "We have an arrangement in place with [Rugby Union Players Association] around player bonuses for the Rugby World Cup, the details of which are in commercial confidence. This arrangement is not inconsistent with what we've had in place for previous World Cups," a spokesman said.

The move is not unusual in large sporting tournaments. The Irish Rugby Football Union took out a similar "insurance" policy this year after guaranteeing the same bonus structure there, while the RFU spent $400,000 insuring itself against an England win in 2011.

Neither team made it to the World Cup final in the respective tournaments, with Ireland falling to Argentina in last weekend's first quarter-final and England bombing out at the same point in 2011.

Considering the ARU's well-documented recent financial woes – and with the much-vaunted $40 million broadcast deal still yet to materialise – a $300,000 hedge against a possible $4.7 million outlay could be seen as a smart business decision.

In a significant departure from campaigns past, this is the first tournament in some time at which the Wallabies will not claim a semi-final win bonus.

In 2011 a $25,000 a player reward was on offer in the semis and $85,000 in the final.

In France in 2007 it was $42,000 for a semi-final win and $85,000 for the trophy.

Of course, the ARU has not had to pay out a knockout-stages bonus since 2003, the last time the Wallabies made a World Cup final.

It is understood RUPA was prepared to forego a semi-final bonus in recognition of the fact that only a World Cup win would deliver the code an immediate financial uplift in Australia. The decision also mirrors fans' expectations, reinforced in the ARU's recent strategic survey, that success in the eyes of supporters means nothing short of victory at a World Cup.

The total figure the ARU may have to fork out falls well short of the $5.7 million on offer in 2007 and is also lower than the $4.9 million agreed to before the 2011 World Cup – neither of which were paid out after the Wallabies crashed out of both tournaments, in the quarters and semis respectively.

The bonus system began in 1999, when the Wallabies received an extra $30,000 a player for winning their second Webb Ellis trophy.

In 2003 the issue almost caused a player strike and saw the ARU and RUPA battle it out in the Supreme Court before a $100,000 a player win bonus was settled upon.

The players settled for $20,000 each after falling to England in extra time, as well as $12,500 a Test.