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BetOnSports shutting down U.S. services
LONDON — BetOnSports PLC, the British-based Internet gambling company that has been charged with fraud and racketeering in the United States, said Friday it will shut down its services for American gamblers.
BetOnSports said it plans to stop operating in Costa Rica and Antigua — from where it accepted wagers from tens of thousands of customers in the United States — as soon as possible following a U.S. federal court order for the company to stop taking bets from the country.
The company said the decision would allow it to gain more sales from outside the United States, in Europe and Asia, to help it pay creditors.
However, Wayne Brown, an analyst at Altium said the decision was the “worst case scenario” that effectively spelled the end of the company, which currently generates almost three-quarters of its business in the United States.
The company took in wagers of $735-million and had 50,000 active players in the first quarter of this year.