Australian casino operator Echo Entertainment is giving its flagship Sydney property The Star a $100m makeover.

The Star underwent an $870m renovation just a few years back but Echo says the new nine-figure gussying-up is necessary if The Star is going to compete with Crown Resorts’ new venue. The VIP-focused Crown Sydney is scheduled to open in 2019, the year Echo’s casino monopoly in Sydney expires.

The Australian reported that Echo’s planned improvements include a complete redevelopment of The Star’s lobby and an increase in the 350 hotel rooms currently available at the Astral Tower. The Star enjoys a high occupancy rate and Echo clearly believes there’s sufficient demand to warrant an expansion. The tower will also be given themed levels, including a “1970s glam” offering, so plenty of time to find that old white Saturday Night Fever suit at the back of your closet.

Echo also plans to ramp up the luxury at the Astral Residences serviced apartment complex, adding an “upmarket” executive lounge, conference facilities and a business center. Echo will fund the expansion via cash reserves. The work is targeted for completion by 2017.

Lee Davy provides a weekly round up of poker news including the headlines from the Spring Championships of Online Poker, a bidding war for Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, and much more.

The biggest story of the week has to be the fight for the right to own the assets of Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment. The world’s largest publicly traded online gambling outfit, is soon to lose that title, with the sharks of the gaming world looking to rip it apart like chum.

The first company to express official interest was GVC Holdings. Given that the UK-listed gambling outfit is valued at circa £277 million, and bwin circa $787 million, the proposal was a reverse takeover.

A day later and it was the turn of 888 Holdings to throw their hat into the ring. Once again, due to the size of both companies, the proposal would have been another reverse takeover, and mouths started watering over a potential competitor worthy of challenging the PokerStars monopoly.

Alex Dreyfus plans to make the Global Poker Index the ‘Poker Entertainment Company’ after unveiling plans to beta test his new TV studios this weekend.

If you didn’t know Alex Dreyfus, and stalked him on Twitter, you could be forgiven for believing he is a hormone-ravaged teenager. The man has become obsessed with Twitch, and now we know why.

The man driving poker to the masses harder than Lewis Hamilton drives a Mercedes has announced plans to launch a new Global Poker Index (GPI) TV show this weekend.

The focus of attention will be the final weekend of what has been a superlative Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP), and the action will be coming to you from his brand new TV facilities in Malta. Not every screw and bolt has been put in place, so the set is still in beta-mode, but it’s never been Dreyfus’s style to wait when there are fans to please.

Irish bookies Boylesports are reportedly negotiating a takeover of Ladbrokes’ struggling Irish retail business.

Last month, Ladbrokes announced it had received the High Court of Dublin’s okay to let examiner Ken Fenell of Deloitte oversee a restructuring of Lads’ Irish retail operations, which lost €5m in 2014. The plan included the closing of 60 of its 196 Irish betting shops. Late last week, some of Lads’ Irish landlords banded together to protest the company’s offer to pay the bare minimum to cancel its existing leases.

On Thursday, the Irish Times reported that Boylesports had approached Fennell about a possible takeover of Lads’ Irish retail business. The offer would reportedly also involve shop closures but at more favorable terms to Lads’ creditors. Boylesports founder John Boyle declined direct comment but said his company remained “open to opportunities as and when they arise.”

Lyons Kenny solicitor Barry Lyons said this type of third-party offer would need to be “demonstrably superior” to Lads’ proposal to gain Fennell’s approval. Boylesports would also need an okay from Ireland’s Commission for Competition and Consumer Protection, which could force Boylesports to sell some of its acquired shops to avoid dominating some markets.