I feel like people think the NBL is a government agency or a non-for-profit or a publicly traded company.

Bogut all over this: https://x.com/andrewbogut/status/1918053844216627665

The underlying issue here is not that someone associated with the NBL (as an NBL basketball referee) landed the job (whether in partnership with LK or not), rather it is the lack of up front transparency from LK and the NBL with the rest of the league (with the timing of the negoitations also a concern for concern given the lack of transparency).

I cant access the article, but I imagine it is something along the lines of

- league makes money for LK
- fewer than half the teams are profitable despite some massive sums being spent on licences
- league using its leverage to lock in exclusive deal for company where there is a conflict of interest
- teams who are struggling with profitability feel they should have more flexibility to help them get towards profitability and are being hampered by the league management who have a COI

Is that basically it?

that too.

The article suggests that LK has bought into the business that profits from all the teams travel

That business is owned by an NBL referee

LK owned the league , teams , paid the referees and is now in business with one of them

This was undeclared to the teams and many think it's a conflict of interest.

LK was negotiating to buy into the business while the ref was working games, specifically calling United games during this time.

Joey doesn't want to talk to Melbourne about Melbourne.

LK announces that the business won the contract and will handle all travel. So all NBL clubs have to use them.

then lets slip that he's a part owner.

if he's smart he would have a transparent selection process, because that would always draw attention.

Next question is how much money has LK been making off gambling connections? The perceptions of where this all ends up are very sad for basketball and what could have been happening the last few years.

Interesting Novelly in the beginning was the one to bring integrity concerns when you consider his fathers relationship with the Justice's of the US Supreme court.

Apples never fall far from the tree.

Also not surprising that the story 'blew up' on a Murdoch outlet, where he has traditionally shown a lot of interest in the ‘major’ male-dominated Aussie sports.
His outlets and the other commercial outlets are always happy to exaggerate any issues with competitors to those traditional sports, so I would never take what they say as absolute truth.

I’m not disagreeing with there being an issue here, just suggesting that there’s probably more balance to the issue than what the Murdoch press puts out.

I can't read the article but that's interesting the Murdoch press is sinking the slipper in as they've been in partnership with the NBL the past four years as part of the broadcast deal and have gone easy on the NBL often leaving it to Fairfax to dish the dirt i.e. the leaked Baynes assault on Adam Forde video.

This development perhaps signals the broadcast deal with ESPN/Foxtel/News Corp has formally ended. It was initially a 3 year deal that ended in 24 that got extended for one year last season.

Larry sees a business opportunity that he can do better, with more control, for cheaper he just creates that business. It's owning the whole supply chain.
Nothing wrong with it. He invests that money back into the business.

There is something wrong with it if he's making money and the team's have no flexibility and this costs them money.

"Larry sees a chance to further own every avenue of basketball in Australia like he is playing monopoly" should be the quote you use Anon.

If you want to know how that is working out, ask NBL1 clubs what they were promised when he took it over, vs what they have received as of current. Our local community club has had maybe 1 promise out of 10 half fulfilled.

LK has done great things picking Basketball up when needed, but if you cannot admit his league continues to show poor examples of integrity you have blinders in.

https://www.afr.com/companies/sport/nbl-apologises-for-kestelman-travel-deal-after-phone-blow-up-20250501-p5lvud

Anon, bit of a difference between creating that business and then offering a deal to the teams, versus mandating that teams must use that business?

AFR article should read.

"NBL back pedals after the media leaked the proposal"

Issac I see your point but how is this any different to the likes of Maccas, where they operate the supply chain and are the landlord to the franchisees?

Would mcdonalds also be in business with the food inspectors?

Or the media to write good things about them?

The Media is in bed with everyone.

Kestleman only has a conflict of interest if he owes a duty to the clubs to always act in their interests and never in his own interests. Another way of putting it is that everything he does has to out of benevolence for the clubs and there can't be anything in it for him as owner of the league.

That notion no doubt comes from all the sporting associations at all levels that we are all familiar with and is being conflated with a very different thing with the NBL.

Kestleman owns the league. He has the power to grant and cancel licences. He has poured millions of his own money into the league including propping up ailing clubs financially. And some on here say thanks very much but don’t dare do anything for your own benefit.

That is exactly like the Macdonalds franchisees telling Macdonalds to alway act in their interests and never for head office. That of course is plainly a nonsense and for the very same reasons is a nonsense in the NBL/Kestleman context.

If you want to go back to an old fashioned association model like when BA ran the show well and good but then all the financial resources for everything has to come from the clubs and deals the association makes with outsiders (eg. media rights). There will not then be any Kestleman sitting in the background putting his own money in wherever it is needed.

Good luck with that!

You seem to be missing the major point that he is in business with a referee that calls the games of the team he owns in a league he controls. Lets put the fact that he pays the referees to the side as well.

Add the suspected gambling issues and this is a pretty important point that the other owners have every right to question.

There would no McDonalds HQ without strong and successful franchisees. That is a poor analogy.

How about both?

Just cause you bought an asset and made it better does not mean you should take the integrity out of it.

Q Anon, if people think the integrity of match outcomes is in question then good on them. That is just typical of the ridiculous modern day conspiracy theories. As if Kestleman with all his smarts would be involved in something like that.

Kestleman is the franchisor of the NBl and yes the league is best served by strong clubs. That does not mean he cannot benefit from owing the thing. Very much the same as any franchisor/franchisee model.

I suspect the gripe of some clubs with this is that they don't want to be paying a markup on travel costs to Kestleman or perhaps anyone for that matter. I would not have thought letting clubs make their own travel arrangements would be a big deal. The clubs are not children and if they stuff up they will only do it once.

KL.
Would you allow an NBL club to invest in a active referees business?

The key word is transparency!
Not every little decision needs to be sent to all clubs, but fairly major ones like this do.
If LK had told the clubs there would be a tender process for the travel and that one of the businesses entering the process was A) Owned by a referee, technically an employee and B) LK was a stakeholder or was in negotiations to be a stakeholder, then the clubs rightly could have called him out on it before it was awarded. The fact it was concealed is fairly serious and won't bode well in that Supreme Court action.
It's actually pretty ludicrous that LK would even sniff around a deal such as this.
Now it just leads to more speculation about if he's got any more deals on the go.
Sure, he's the owner and really the NBL as an individual. If part of the arrangement of the league is that all teams must use LK travel agents, and stay at LK hotels, use LK lease cars etc, then so be it. Might not win him any fans, complaints could be made, but at least it's out in the open instead of being reported in the news as a conflict of interest.
When the story broke on the eve of the finals about Novelly questioning LKs impartiality, it looked on the surface as someone trying to rake a bit of shit up, and most questioned biting the hand that feeds the league. Obviously Novelly had more information and it's really taking an unfortunate turn with stories like this. Can only imagine what else will be brought up in court. If this is the tip of the iceberg, the NBL might be the Titanic.
It's up there with the Trump tariffs idea, awarding a contract to yourself without letting your business partners know. LK is really not doing himself any favours.

There are some valid comparisons with franchise businesses. But usually, (1) the arrangement with head office is known and (2) the arrangement is to improve buying power and therefore pass on lower costs to the franchisee. In this case, there wasn't transparency, which everyone should be pissed off about. The value of the contract and savings to club is unknown, but given the reaction it sounds like the clubs might be paying over the market rate. Given that some clubs are struggling, it’s poor form by LK if true. A please explain is warranted.

Conference call:

None of which was especially remarkable until Stevenson read the quiet part out loud, revealing in the interests of transparency that Performance Travel was actually half-owned by the NBL's chairman, Larry Kestelman.

Perth Wildcats owner Mark Arena went ballistic and then hung up the phone in disgust, causing much giggling from the other owners. If he’d stayed on the line, he might have heard Stevenson’s financial reasoning for the arrangement: he said the Performance Travel contract would ultimately save the league much money in fees.

So.... They were transparent… and the arrangement is going to save money. Isn't this a good thing?

Wrong essenx.

There was no tender.

No process.

They were told this is what teams are now doing, not asked or consulted pre decision.

Whose team lost to United in a contentious no call? Arena has every right to be pissed off.

Whose team lost to Jack Jumpers on a bad call on an inbounds? When millions of dollars are at stake you better believe people are going to wonder why LK keeps coming up on the right side of these calls.

Interesting points.

First and foremost Arena should be pissed off at himself for paying $40mil and stupidly agreeing to SEG continuing their (mis-)management of the asset.

The inbounds play is only contentious for people who don't understand the rules. The play got sent to FIBA for adjudication by both the NBL and the Wildcats. Both got the same reply, legal play.

I understand that there are stakeholders involved - there always is with everything.

But a private business doesn't have to run a tender process for every agreement they make.

I’m not familiar with the profit model of a travel agency, but I would imagine it’s something like:

- Agency makes money based partly on a fee for providing the (corporate) service and partly based on commissions from providers (airline, hotels etc)
- Agency also has base costs including guaranteed wages

I would also imagine majority of the work involved is pre-planned well in advance.

If you’re the travel agency, this probably fills work hours that is already paid for anyway and probably fills the low utilisation periods. So, for lack of opportunity loss otherwise, is essentially work done without additional cost.

This would give LK the opportunity to make a profit (or help pay the base costs) with the agency whilst delivering savings for clubs (such as a tiny service fee or passing on some of the commission) that make other travel agencies probably not bother to compete for the contract anyway.

Formanthedoorman, why does their need to be a tender? Tender processes can sometimes be expensive to run, waste time and not necessarily lead to better outcomes. What if the new arrangement could show that quickly and clearly it was going to save a certain % straight out the gates?

Another angle is that by LK having an interest in the agency, he can ensure that it continues to provide better rates to the NBL. It's just integration.

I’m not saying that this is right, just that there are other sides to the story that commercially, to me at least, make sense.

There was not even this by all reports.

The owners (in which Arena stormed out of) were TOLD this what you are doing.

Funnily enough I know read in the Fin review the NBL has now back-pedalled.. Guess the media storm didnt look good for LK

https://www.afr.com/companies/sport/nbl-apologises-for-kestelman-travel-deal-after-phone-blow-up-20250501-p5lvud

Did they say who the referee is who is the part business owner?

Jack Taylor.

And lets be fair to Jack regardless of what the article says, "It's another truth that founder of Performance Travel is Jack Taylor, a veteran NBL referee".

The guy has been on the NBL panel for 3 season's and has done approximately a total of 8 games.

Creative writing at best.

Yeah, when reading the name I thought "who?" followed immediately by "what?" over the next word.

"Veteran" because he survived the politics?