Germany-based bookmaker Interwetten, a partner of the DFB, has stopped offering betting markets for all amateur matches in the country.

The decision was taken after news last month that police in Germany confirmed they are investigating potential betting related match-fixing in 17 lower-league matches.

Matches being investigated were from Germany’s professional third division (3. Liga), semi-professional fourth tier (Regionalliga) and amateur fifth tier (Oberliga). Authorities said they are looking into suspicious refereeing decisions and unusual behaviour from goalkeepers and defenders.

As well as pulling betting markets from the men’s and women’s amateur game (both on their domestic and international platforms), Interwetten have tightened their betting registration rules.

German-based customers can no longer register for its international platform, and international gamblers cannot register on the German platform.

“We very much welcome this decision by Interwetten,” says Dr. Holger Blask, CEO of DFB GmbH & Co. KG.

“This shows the partner’s sense of responsibility. We are both convinced that a controlled sports betting market with licensed sports betting providers ensures proper game play and thus the integrity of sporting competition, as well as best taking player protection into account.”

The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) said it will enforce a ban on club sponsorship by bookmakers across all levels of Brazilian football starting last Friday (11 October).

Clubs and leagues have been instructed to end deals with operators lacking approval from the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), following orders from the Ministry of Finance.

This move affects five Série A clubs, including Grêmio, Corinthians, Bahia, and Palmeiras, all of which are sponsored by Esportes da Sorte – the company challenging the SPA’s licensing process.

Athletico Paranaense has already suspended its sponsorship with the company, though other clubs maintain their partnerships.

The CBF’s decision aligns with Brazil’s broader effort to regulate betting through a new licensing regime, aimed at controlling the rapidly growing sports betting market in the country.

The SPA has issued 90 licenses but faced criticism from betting companies left out of the process, such as Esportes da Sorte, which only holds a state-level license from Rio de Janeiro, now invalid nationally due to a recent ruling.

Brazil has been plagued by allegations of betting related match-fixing with the unlicensed betting market impacting not only the sporting integrity of Brazilian football but also the country’s broader economic and legal framework.

However, betting sponsorships have quickly become a crucial revenue source for many clubs.

The lights-out approach adopted by Brazil’s regulators differs from that in Europe where regulators have generally given betting operators more time to comply with new regulations amid growing concerns of the need to increase consumer protections. In Brazil the issue has been that regulation has not been fast enough to keep up with the explosion of bookmakers in the market and the clubs’ financial ecosystems.

Genoa, Italy’s oldest club, are seeking new buyers after owners 777 Partners – who had tried to purchase Everton a few months ago – collapsed financially.

Reports claim all of the US-based investment firm’s football assets “have been put up for sale” after the High Court in London presented them with a winding up order.

The downfall of 777 Partners – whose portfolio of teams either under ownership or which they had stakes in included Genoa, Sevilla, Hertha Berlin, Vasco da Gama, Melbourne Victory and Standard Liege – comes some five months after the firm were handed a deadline of the end of May to complete the Everton deal, having initially been granted “conditional approval” by the English Premier League provided they met a number of conditions.

The Miami-based firm had been beset by legal and financial issues and was effectively being kept afloat by a $40 million loan taken by A-Cap in May, one of their principle creditors.

They had been in charge of Genoa since 2021. Belgium’s Standard Liege is also apparently up for sale at €15-18 million.