League Notes: Aussie Bookmaker Waterhouse Laments New Race Field Fees

Australia's best-known bookmaker Rob Waterhouse said that he has "had to change his business model because of the extra costs forced upon him and his colleagues," such as those announced by the State Government and Racing NSW last week. The race-fields fees increases of up to 4% on turnover have "caused much debate in the low-margin business of bookmaking." Waterhouse: "It is like they are hunting woolly mammoths with shotguns. The mentality is stuck somewhere back in the 1960s rather than moving with the times" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 8/2). ... U.K. grassroots women's football will receive a £3.7M ($5.8M) cash injection through a joint initiative between Sport England, the FA, the Premier League and the Football League Trust. The additional funding comes with "a target of recruiting 21,060 new players in the next 12 months" (SKY SPORTS, 8/2).