Battle lines are hardening between UK bookmakers and racing over the controversial Authorized Betting Partner (ABP) sponsorship scheme.

Earlier this week, Gala Coral Group CEO Carl Leaver offered a compromise to the British Horseracing Authority’s new ABP scheme, which as of Jan. 1 limits racing sponsorship opportunities to bookmakers who ante up 7.5% of their online race betting revenue on top of the 10.75% share of retail betting.

In a letter to the Racing Post, Leaver offered to “happily” pay 7.5% on online race betting revenue on the condition that the retail levy was reduced to 7.5%. Leaver claimed his company’s racing costs – media rights, sponsorship and levy fees – had risen 45% to £48m in the last seven years, while race betting revenue had fallen 18% to £124m. Leaver called the ABP scheme both “draconian” and “unsustainable.”

In response, the BHA issued a statement saying Leaver’s 7.5% offer was “not a realistic starting point for negotiations.” The BHA rejected Leaver’s ‘draconian’ tag as well as his mathematics, claiming that the Coral boss wasn’t factoring in the side benefits of non-racing wagers that punters may place when they make their racing bets.