As rugby league prepares for a history-making trip to Las Vegas, BBC Sport looks at why the sport is trying to crack a formidable US market.

Four games of rugby league, traditionally played in the north of England and Australia, will be played in Sin City this weekend. Why?

Having another roll in Las Vegas this weekend is a long way from rugby league's first forays into selling the sport to Americans. A grainy black-and-white newsreel of a bunch of college students in uniforms that covered them from the knees to wrists is stored in the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia under the title “Yanks play rugby league,