Sportingbet is a British online gambling operator, owned by Entain plc. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange ♣ and was a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index prior to its acquisition by GVC holdings.

History [ edit ]

The company ♣ was founded by Mark Blandford in 1997.[2] Sportingbet acquired Paradise Poker in October 2004.[3] On 7 September 2006 Sportingbet reported ♣ that its then chairman, Peter Dicks, was detained in New York City on a Louisiana warrant while traveling in the ♣ United States on business unrelated to online gambling.[4] Louisiana is one of the few states that has a specific law ♣ prohibiting gambling online. In March 2007, all Louisiana warrants involving the company were cancelled.[5]

In October 2006, Sportingbet announced Paradise Poker ♣ would stop taking deposits from US customers, although most would be allowed to continue to play for another month.[6] Additionally, ♣ Sportingbet sold all its US-facing sports betting and casino businesses, including Sportsbook and Sports, to a group of private investors ♣ forR$1, and an assumption ofR$13.2 million in debts.[7]

In February 2007, Sportingbet announced it was eliminating its Paradise Poker software and ♣ migrating players to its Sportingbet Poker platform. Prior to this, the two platforms had approximately the same number of players, ♣ but the Sportingbet platform had higher liquidity because that platform was part of a larger network. The brand name of ♣ Paradise Poker was retained.[8]