Sentenced -- Three Russian men accused of extorting millions of dollars from online gaming companies were each sentenced on Wednesday to eight years in jail. According to Russian news sources, Ivan Maksakov, Alexander Petrov and Denis Stepanov used DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks to persuade targeted businesses to pay up to £2 million (close to US$4 million). Prosecutors said the trio conducted 54 attacks on servers in 30 countries over a six-month period in 2003.
Scrapped -- Sportingbet Plc announced on Monday that it has scrapped its planned merger with World Gaming plc. "The boards of Sportingbet Plc and World Gaming Plc have discontinued any discussions with regard to a potential offer by Sportingbet for World Gaming," the two groups said. Sportingbet also said it would consider cutting off U.S. bets when the Internet gambling prohibition law goes into effect. "Should Sportingbet's non-U.S. international banking partners determine that the act applied to them, then Sportingbet would no longer be able to take deposits from U.S. residents and this would have a material impact on the company's trading performance," the company said.
bwin La Pampa -- Austrian bookmaker bwin has plans to enter the Latin American market by starting up operations in the Argentinean province of La Pampa, according to Yogonet.com. bwin has reportedly applied for a license and presented the project to the Ministry of Production. The government of La Pampa is said to be backing the project and is close to granting the license.
Cricket and Then Some -- Southeast Asia-focused online gaming site MaharajahClub.com and online sports betting and casino operator Interactive Gaming Holdings (IGH) have partnered to launch the first online sports book for Southeast Asian gamblers. IGH will handle the marketing for the site, which includes online betting for cricket, football, horse racing/ante post, greyhound racing/ante post, American football, basketball, boxing, bowls, darts, golf, ice hockey, motor sport, rugby union and snooker.
Nine Months -- In an attempt to soothe its customers, payment processor Neteller issued a message this week, noting that it will take up to nine months for the United States enforcement and federal banking entities to prescribe regulations for the new anti-online gambling bill. "It is currently unclear how Neteller, a European company, with no assets, presence or employees in the U.S., would be affected by this bill. Once the regulations have been written, Neteller will have a clearer view of which companies are affected, how those companies will be expected to comply and any possible resulting impact on Neteller and its U.S. facing business."
Banned -- The French Professional Football League (LFP) on Friday banned its clubs from advertising any form of online gambling or sports betting. An LFP official told Monaco before its match against Le Mans on Saturday that the advertising boards around the field had to be removed before the match could start. The ban comes less than three weeks after Manfred Bodner and Norbert Teufelberger, the co-CEOs of Austrian bookmaker bwin.com Interactive Entertainment, were detained for allegedly violating French gaming laws by advertising its services to French residents.