Online betting firm Dafabet has extended its international betting sponsorship of English Premier League club Everton for another three years, where it will continue serving as an official partner of the team until the 2017-2018 EPL season.

Under the terms of the agreement, Dafabet will be able to continue offering fans an array of promotional events and offerings to help boost the team’s interaction with its supporters. The Asian betting operator will also provide Thai and Chinese versions of Everton’s official website, allowing fans in the two countries to gain access to club in their native languages.

The Dafabet – Everton alliance began in 2012. Everton’s marketing and communications director, Richard Kenyon, spoke about the club’s partnership with Dafabet, which began when the betting company was still a relative neophyte in the Premier League when it burst into the scene during the 2012-2013 season. Since then, the two sides have enjoyed a “positive couple of seasons” together and Everton, according to Kenyon, is “pleased to continue working alongside Asia’s leading online gaming site to offer our international supporters a premium gaming service.”

His counterpart, Dafabet Head of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship John Cruces, expressed similar sentiments, saying that the online gambling site has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with the Toffees for the past three seasons and is now looking forward to “continuing the relationship and further achieve our mutual goals.”

There is no shortage of companies angling to win the single casino license available in the Greek-controlled southern half of Cyprus. Now, a Beverly Hills-based realty company is trying to put together a casino proposal in the hopes of securing the sought-after license.

Realty Group International (RGI) is eyeing a major casino investment in the Mediterranean island and already has a plan in place should it take hold of the casino license. Part of that plan includes an initial pre-established consortium made up of “prominent institutions” and “key people” that are ready to proceed into the bidding process.

The company is the only US-based real estate company with a significant presence in Cyprus is touting existing partnerships with local groups that can provide the necessary assistance needed to aid in developing its proposed casino project. It already owns several large plots of land that can be used to develop a project of this magnitude, including one of the largest beachfront parcels in the island, located across the coastal area of Larnaka. According to RGI, the property includes over 1.2 million square feet of buildable posts and 1 million square feet of tourist zone areas that can be converted into a number of attractions, including a golf course, water and theme parks, a 900-room five-star hotel and a handful of conference centers.

RGI has as a lot of competition as 13 other companies have expressed interest in the casino license on the island.

Embattled online betting company 666Bet has been forced to issue a new statement addressing the growing unrest from angry customers demanding their money back, saying that the site needs to be online before it could pay outstanding customer balances.

In a statement released on its Facebook page, 666Bet called the UK Gambling Commission’s statement that the site didn’t need to have a license in order for the company to withdraw money back to their customers as “misleading,” arguing that the site needed to be online to do it and more importantly, it needs a third-party provider to do it. Unfortunately, 666Bet claims that a number of its third party providers, including its payment providers, “immediately cancelled or suspended” their contracts with the company pending its return as a “white label”.

666Bet did say that it was in negotiations with an unnamed third party provider that would allow it to return online and process customer withdrawals. But this agreement needs to be sanctioned by the UKGC and so far, the company has yet to hear “updates” from either party regarding the issue.

“We understand customers’ frustrations and fully appreciate their concerns, not helped by erroneous and inaccurate press reports – both in print and online – that have helped to muddy the waters. We have been doing everything within our power to refund customers fully but are now waiting on the aforementioned parties to reach an agreement so we can proceed as planned,” the statement concluded.

Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has found itself embroiled in another controversy after an ill-fated tweet before an English Premier League game between Liverpool and Newcastle game sparked an enormous public outcry.

Paddy Power, known for dipping its toes in controversy, tweeted before the game that “Newcastle have suffered more Kop beatings over the last 20 years than an unarmed African-American male,” alluding to the famous home end at Anfield and the rash of recent incidents in the US where unarmed African-Americans were killed by police officials. The joke was intended to generate interest in the company’s betting markets for the game itself. But as has been the case numerous times in the past, Paddy’s derogatory attempts at humor turned into another round of public backlash from the masses.

The tweet has since been deleted and a Paddy spokesman has officially apologized for the company posting it on its Twitter account, telling CNN that the message was supposed to a joke and that “no offense was meant” by it. But even the apology did little to appease Twitter users who condemned the betting company for another out-of-line joke that touched on a serious issue in the US these days.

Some have even gone as far as calling Paddy Power “racist,” which would be another in the long list of transgressions the company has sowed in recent years. This tweet referencing police brutality issues in the US crossed that line from crass and tasteless to downright offensive.

New Mexico moved one step closer to finalizing a new compact between the state and Native American tribes after Governor Susana Martinez signed a gaming compact that will allow tribal casinos to remain in operation for another 22 years. The compact was approved last month by the Legislature and with Martinez’s signature, all that remains is an approval from the U.S. Department of Interior before the compact takes into effect.

Martinez’s approval of the new gaming compact is a culmination of three years of negotiations between the state and Native American leaders. Should it get a thumbs up from the Department of Interior as many expect it will, a handful of provisions will be put in place as agreed upon by both parties.

Under the terms of the compact, Native American tribes will provide regular reports to the state about their gaming activities, allowing the state the opportunity to work with tribes in the event that problems arise affecting either side. State regulators will also have improved access to business information of the tribes to help ensure that the tribes are complying with the terms set forth in the new compact.

Native American tribes have agreed to increase the state’s cut in revenue sharing and to direct a percentage of gaming revenue to help address potential problem gambling issues. Finally, tribal casinos will now be part of a self-exclusion program, a new provision that previously was used only at private racetracks.