Shares in LSE-listed Sportingbet plc plummeted more than 40 percent today in their first full day of trading since Wednesday. Trading was suspended early Thursday following the announcement that the company's non-executive CEO, Peter Dicks, was detained at JFK airport in New York.
In the first hour of trading today, shares had fallen 94.75p to 144.75, a drop of 39 percent. The price sunk has low as 140 and rose nearly to 155 before setting at the end of the day at 144. Shares were priced at 239 when trading was suspended. By comparison, the shares had hit a high of 446p just four months ago.
Dicks, 64, was picked up on an outstanding warrant from Louisiana, charged with illegal Internet gambling and released from jail on Friday on $50,000 bond. He is fighting extradition to Louisiana, has been stripped of his passport and must remain within the five boroughs of New York City, plus Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties in New York. He is due back in court on Thursday for an extradition hearing.
Sportingbet's board of directors said in prepared a statement today that the company never received correspondence from any authority within the state of Louisiana regarding the warrant or any related matter. The company continues to operate as normal and is still taking bets from the United States.