Australian sports betting and lottery operator Tabcorp Holdings wants out of its UK-facing Sun Bets online gambling joint venture.

On Thursday, Tabcorp confirmed that it is seeking an early exit from its online gambling partnership with Rupert Murdoch’s News UK media operation. Sun Bets launched in 2016 but never caught on with the betting public, and Tabcorp placed the money-losing operation under review last October.

Tabcorp’s deal with News UK allows it to exit the Sun Bets venture on December 31, 2019, but the Guardian reported that Tabcorp had informed its 60 UK-based staff that it was seeking to exit the partnership a year ahead of schedule.

Tabcorp confirmed that it was “in discussions” with News UK about the premature evacuation, which Guardian sources claimed could cost Tabcorp up to £30m in penalties. That may appear the lesser of two evils, as Sun Bets booked a net loss of A$22.5m (US$17.2m) in the first half of Tabcorp’s fiscal 2018 on revenue of just A$3.7m.