UK bookmakers Betfred are looking to sell a one-quarter stake in the Tote pool betting operation, according to media reports.

On Saturday, Sky News reported that Betfred founder Fred Done was in “advanced negotiations with a consortium of racing industry figures” about selling a 25% stake in the Tote. The report claimed the 25% stake was likely to fetch a price of over £30m, and that the deal could be concluded “within weeks.”

Sky News claimed the racing consortium was led by Eamon Wilmott, chairman of racing technology provider Total Performance Data and a former board member of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), with which Done has waged a very public war of words over the past few years.

Last September, Done publicly declared that his firm’s “association with racing is broken.” Done vowed to pull the majority of Betfred’s on-course betting shops and scrap his company’s commercial relationships with racing following the July 2018 expiration of Betfred’s exclusive pool betting deal.

Ireland’s top amateur sporting organization has overwhelmingly voted to prohibit all sponsorship by betting companies.

On Saturday, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) held its annual congress at Dublin’s Croke Park, at which 93% of the 270 voting delegates voted to ban “sponsorship by a betting company of any competition, team, playing gear or facility.”

The congress also voted (by a slightly smaller margin) to prohibit the brand of any sponsor – gambling or otherwise – from being “allowed on clothing and gear of match officials.”

No inter-country GAA teams have betting sponsorships at present, but Armagh football has a deal with Irish bookmakers Boylesports and All-Ireland club champs Crossmaglen Rangers are sponsored by Bar One Racing. Both deals will expire at the end of their current terms.

Betfair Australasia is warning Australian state governments that their plans to impose online betting point of consumption taxes (POCT) are going to blow up in their faces.

On Friday, the Brisbane Times disclosed the existence of a report prepared by the Betfair Australasia betting exchange urging the state governments in South Australia and Western Australia to rethink their decision to impose a 15% tax on all online wagers placed by their states’ residents.

South Australia began collecting its POCT last July, while Western Australia’s new tax is set to take effect on January 1, 2019. Australia’s federal government is also mulling imposing a national POCT in order to harmonize the country’s online taxation system.

Betfair Australasia, which is owned by casino operator Crown Resorts and licensed in the Northern Territory, warned the states that the tax hikes would force it to hike its own commission fees, which will cause “leakage” of its customers to internationally licensed online gambling sites that aren’t subject to the states’ tax grab.

Greece is pressing forward with plans to get into the integrated resort casino business, motivated by the government’s need to ensure its international lenders keep the cash coming.

On Thursday, the Council of State, Greece’s top administrative court, approved the development plan for a major integrated resort project on the site of Athens’ former Hellinikon airport. The decision was then published in the official Government Gazette to ensure that foreign lenders wouldn’t miss the message.

Greece’s international bailout agreement calls for the government to receive another €5.7b tranche in March, on the condition that the government follows through on promised economic reforms, including the privatization of the Hellinikon project.

In Thursday’s Council of State ruling, the judges dismissed concerns that the project’s proposed high-rises violated local planning regulations, declaring that such deviations from the norm “are justified in serving the purpose of the public interest.”