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Shares in the publicly listed bookmaker have dropped by 50% making the company's value fell by around US$100m. Nervous investors bailed out on the back of a profit warning for the last six months of 2004.

The company blamed the difficulties in securing successful advertising opportunities for its unexpected financial shortfall. "A significant number of radio stations and other advertising mediums have withdrawn advertising which had already been booked and paid for," a BetonSports statement said. Media in the US have been under pressure from the Department of Justice for some time to not accept online betting ads. This has affected BetonSports in a significant manner, forcing them to reduce their marketing budget by US$10m. "As a result of this there has been a consequential impact on the number of new customer sign ups and gross handle," a company source said. The bookmaker, which has already suffered a fall in turnover for the first half of the year and with their resources aimed at maximising revenue from the NFL, now faces the prospect of finishing the year with both gross betting turnover and gross win much lower than for the previous year. The firm was forced to concede that if this continued results for the year to 31 January 2005 would be "significantly lower than originally anticipated".