Betfair cutting off its Russian customers as of May 18

Online sports betting exchange Betfair is cutting off its Russian customers on the same day its parent company Flutter Entertainment completed its mega-merger with PokerStars’ parent The Stars Group (TSG).

Betfair’s Russian customers woke Tuesday to discover that the site had “taken the decision to close its websites for all existing Russian customers.” The site is no longer accepting new customer registrations and existing customers have been given until May 18 to withdraw the funds in their accounts.

There was no justification provided for the withdrawal, which apparently also applies to Estonia. Betfair has in the past withdrawn from certain grey/black markets after being publicly shamed for operating without approval of local authorities, although there’s no indication that Betfair has received any recent regulatory brushback in Russia.

Various Betfair domains have occasionally surfaced in the online blacklist of Russia’s telecom watchdog Rozkomnadzor. But Betfair.com’s most recent scarlet letter was issued at the end of January, so if this is a response to that tagging, it took a while to sink in.