Home » OCW News » January 2010 » Former Online Gambling CEO Jailed for 33 Months

Former Online Gambling CEO Jailed for 33 Months

Date published: 11 January 2010

This SlideShowPro photo gallery requires the Flash Player plugin and a web browser with JavaScript enabled.

Last week a U.S. judge handed former BetOnSports CEO David Carruthers a 33 month prison sentence after he was found guilty on racketeering and conspiracy charges. During the height of its success, the popular online sports betting site reportedly grossed over $1,25 billion a year.

Unfortunately for BetOnSports and the Scottish-born Carruthers, the U.S. Justice Department chose to make an example of the successful online gambling firm that was generating the bulk of its revenues from U.S. online betting fans. The resulting crackdown resulted in Carruthers' arrest on July 2006.

Shortly after his arrest, which took place at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas while her was en route to his home in Costa Rica, the online gambling executive 'stepped down' as CEO of the firm. From then until now, he has been under house arrest in St. Louis, Missouri awaiting sentencing.

Carruthers' association with gambling has been a long and varied one. After graduating from the University of Wolverhampton with an MBA, Carruthers joined UK gambling group Ladbrokes in 1976, where he rose through the ranks for the next 24 years, eventually overseeing around 40 Ladbrokes shops.

Don't miss...

In 2000 he left Ladbrokes to join BetOnSports - then a private firm - as the company's CEO. Later under Carruthers' guidance, BetOnSports plc was successfully floated on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The floatation generated £54.6 million in capital for the popular online betting concern.

During his time as CEO of BetOnSports, Carruthers successfully tripled the firm's operating profits, and in June 2004 he was appointed to the board of directors. That same year, the firm reported a turnover of over $1.6 billion. Between 1999 and 2004, BetOnSports saw a 276 percent jump in turnover.

However, two years later the BetOnSports bubble was about to burst. While Carruthers was the face of the firm's U.S. prosecution, 11 other key BetOnSports employees - including BetOnSports founder Gary Kaplan - were also charged. Kaplan was sentenced to 4 years in prison in August last year.