When Rebecca Riant took over as chief executive of ClubsNSW in July 2023, she had already spent almost three years dipping her toes in the sector, but on the gaming side. Two of those years at Tabcorp and nine months at The Star, both of which had gone through material structural changes and faced industry perception challenges.
Prior to these roles, she had spent 30 years in financial services, including as an executive for Westpac and Commonwealth Bank.
This meant Riant was well-versed in crisis management, financial crime remediation, designing and executing strategic pivots to better focus on a customer, and dealing with complex sets of stakeholders in challenging industries with reputational complexities. So, stepping in to head up the NSW peak body for licensed clubs industry wasn’t too dissimilar to what she had done before.
“This role was certainly in my bailiwick,” she remarked.
Her appointment followed the dismissal of Josh Landis, before the NSW state election, over inflammatory comments he made about the religious beliefs of then-NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet influencing his decisions over gaming.
Now, a year into her role, she expressed how she’s enjoyed the ride so far. While she considers it a little too premature to specify any achievements, she highlights last year’s ClubsNSW Conference on the Gold Coast as one of the standout moments of the role so far.
“I’d only been in the role for about 10 weeks, and I was blown away by the quality of the whole event — the speakers, the engagement, the large attendance — and it was a great opportunity to engage directly with our members,” she said.
Getting the conversation going
According to Riant, when she assumed the chief executive role, she initially focused on two things. The first was getting out to meet as many member clubs as possible to understand what they’re looking for from their peak industry body, and where ClubsNSW could be more relevant and ensure its members are getting value from their membership fees.
“I also wanted to ensure they felt they were being represented in a way that aligned with their values and objectives,” she added.
The second objective was to meet as many as what she describes as “detractors” as possible. She clarified it’s those that disapprove of either ClubsNSW, the club industry or gaming more broadly,
“I’ve certainly had a number of challenging conversations, but one thing I’ve learnt in my career is that you don’t learn anything new if you only surround yourself with people who agree with you and your perspective,” Riant said.
“It’s important that leaders seek out alternative perspectives so they can better understand their competitors, their stakeholders, their detractors — only then do you really learn what you need to do differently. I always welcome constructive challenges and a good debate.”
She also recognises clubs are constantly met with challenges, which she hopes ClubsNSW canassist with. Riant highlights two of the most imminent challenges the industry is facing: the deterioration of the macro-economic environment and what that means for the clubs industry, and the evolving regulatory landscape.
“The first one is tough,” she admitted. “We are not best placed to tell clubs how to run their businesses, but we are working hard to ensure that the path for diversifying their revenue is smoother than it previously was.
“That might be through working with government on vibrancy reform, cutting red tape, reducing the regulatory burden, or connecting clubs with the right resources so they can seek appropriate, independent advice at a reasonable price point.
“Regulatory reform and the increased expectations of regulators are only just starting to impact our part of the industry, though some will say it has been impacting us for a while. We should expect the impact to be large, over a long timeframe and costly — ensuring that we have a good relationship with government so that clubs are able to transition their business models to adapt will be crucial.”
This story was first published by Club Management, click here to subscribe to the weekly newsletter.