An online betting company suffered a Grand National wipeout after its web site was crippled by a Russian blackmail gang.

Bosses at Sporting Options, based in Burgess Hill, received an email at 9pm on Friday demanding protection money.

When it refused to pay up, the company's web site was attacked and paralysed by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) bug.

The attack lasted from 9pm on Friday until 4pm on Sunday and prevented punters from placing last-minute bets on the National.

Paul Cooper, head of communications at Sporting Options, said the attack had a devastating effect on business.

He said: "We estimate we lost at least £10,000. No one could access our site for about 40 hours.

"They obviously knew it was Grand National day and thought we would buckle under pressure.

"But there was absolutely no way they were going to get any of our money and it's something we have to put behind us.

"We are a very fast-growing company and we are looking forward to the flat season. Our web site is now up and running."

DDoS attacks are almost always intentional and malicious, although they can happen accidentally.

Most do not result in the theft of information but can cost companies, especially internet-based ones, a great deal of time and money.

Police officers from the national high-tech unit in London are investigating the extortion attempt, which involved a "substantial" amount of money.

Betting exchanges have changed the world of betting drastically since they were introduced in 2000 and give punters a better chance of winning.

They allow people to bet against each other rather than directly with a bookie and have been fiercely resisted by traditional betting shops.

On average, odds are 20 per cent higher than those offered by bookmakers and successful punters do not suffer from having the size of their bets restricted.

Sporting Options works by punters lodging a sum of money with an exchange, which takes three per cent on all transactions.

The punter is then free to list his odds on the web site, which is available to all others registered with the exchange.

It amounts to one person's opinion against another.

All bets are made anonymously, the minimum stake is £1 and the minimum deposit £25.

Bets have ranged from £1 to more than £100,000 and the latest technology lets punters bet on races while they are being run.

Tuesday April 06, 2004