Super League has confirmed that it has received an investment offer from the Australian Rugby League Commission.
Discussions have been ongoing between the two parties since last year.
In a brief statement, Rugby League commercial said Super League’s 14 clubs had been informed of the offer on Thursday and that details “remain confidential”.
Chairman of National Rugby League (NRL) Peter V’landys told Sport last October that Super League was in danger of “a crash” if it did not find new ways to grow revenue.
In April, NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo said concerns that a deal between the sport’s two leading competitions would lead to a talent drain from Super League were “completely unfounded”.
“What we’re trying to achieve is to make rugby league in the UK and Europe as strong as possible,” he told Sport.
“That’s the exact opposite of it becoming a feeder pathway programme.”
Abdo also said that the NRL was looking for a partnership with Super League rather than a takeover of it.
At the time, Rhodri Jones, head of RL Commercial, called the negotiations between Super League and the NRL “encouraging”.
“The sport is open minded to investment,” Jones told Sport.
“The NRL is a natural fit. They are probably the front leaders in the negotiations that we are currently having with various parties.”
When asked if the ARLC wanted to decide the make-up of an independent commission that would run Super League, Jones said: “That’s their demand at this point in time.
“But at the moment, you could say that is a ‘red line’, because it’s important that the UK game is represented. There is independence in our governance structure already.”
Leeds Rhinos chairman Paul Caddick is among those to have raised concerns at the prospect of investment, previously saying, “we have no intention of being swallowed up”.
The Super League began in 1996 when rugby league’s premier European competition moved to being a summer competition.
Hull KR won the Grand Final last year to join St Helens, Wigan Warriors, Leeds Rhinos and Bradford Bulls as the only teams to have claimed the title.