China is mulling the launch of a new sports lottery focused on the country’s domestic football leagues.

On Thursday, China’s State General Administration of Sports released its five-year development plan, which included the idea of a new football lottery product that will help fund Beijing’s goal of turning the country into a “top class soccer nation” by 2050.

The plan envisions “speeding up the innovative and creative progress on sports lottery, studying and promoting the process of starting up football lottery” on both the Chinese Super League and China League One. This will involve “adapting to the trend, broadening the lottery trade channel land steadily expanding market scale.”

China’s domestic football leagues are notorious for their susceptibility to match-fixing, which Beijing has blamed for the country’s inability to field a team capable of competing on the international stage. Beijing launched a crackdown on football corruption in 2009 in a bid to inject some badly needed respectability into its national game, a goal the authorities claim has largely been achieved.

A co-founder of online gambling site World Sports Exchange (WSEX) has been spared jail time for his role in the defunct sports betting operation.

On Monday, Haden Ware (pictured) appeared in a Manhattan federal court, where he was sentenced to six months of probation. Ware, who was indicted on multiple illegal gambling charges back in 2002, returned to US shores in January after striking a deal with prosecutors that saw him plead guilty to a single conspiracy charge.

The terms of Ware’s deal prevented him from contesting a custodial sentence of up to one year, but US District Judge William Pauley spared Ware the indignity of going to jail, saying the prosecution’s desire to see Ware wearing stripes represented a “wooden approach.”

Pauley justified his leniency by suggesting that Ware’s role in WSEX had been relatively minor compared to that of co-founders Jay Cohen and Steve Schillinger. Noting that Ware had avoided returning to the US for over a decade, Pauley said he sympathized with “the fact that this hung around your neck all these years.”

A co-founder of online gambling site World Sports Exchange (WSEX) has been spared jail time for his role in the defunct sports betting operation.

On Monday, Haden Ware (pictured) appeared in a Manhattan federal court, where he was sentenced to six months of probation. Ware, who was indicted on multiple illegal gambling charges back in 2002, returned to US shores in January after striking a deal with prosecutors that saw him plead guilty to a single conspiracy charge.

The terms of Ware’s deal prevented him from contesting a custodial sentence of up to one year, but US District Judge William Pauley spared Ware the indignity of going to jail, saying the prosecution’s desire to see Ware wearing stripes represented a “wooden approach.”

Pauley justified his leniency by suggesting that Ware’s role in WSEX had been relatively minor compared to that of co-founders Jay Cohen and Steve Schillinger. Noting that Ware had avoided returning to the US for over a decade, Pauley said he sympathized with “the fact that this hung around your neck all these years.”

Wagering on the 2016 Kentucky Derby failed to surpass 2015’s record handle, in part due to a major technical failure at Betfair’s US advance deposit wagering (ADW) operations.

According to stats released by Louisville-based Churchill Downs Inc (CDI), total wagering on the Kentucky Derby Day program amounted to $192.6m, down 1% from 2015’s record. Wagering on the actual Kentucky Derby race fell 10% year-on-year to $124.7m, the lowest figure since 2011.

On-track wagering was up 2% to $23.5m on the day’s total package but down 6% to $11.3m on the marquee race. Business was far more brisk at CDI’s ADW site TwinSpires.com, which reported the day’s wagers up 29% to $26.8m, while racing on the marquee event was up 22% to $16.6m.

But the day was a disaster for the US operations of UK-listed betting exchange Betfair (now part of the enlarged Paddy Power Betfair group), which saw its US-facing ADW site TVG go offline for nearly three hours on Saturday.

Wagering on the 2016 Kentucky Derby failed to surpass 2015’s record handle, in part due to a major technical failure at Betfair’s US advance deposit wagering (ADW) operations.

According to stats released by Louisville-based Churchill Downs Inc (CDI), total wagering on the Kentucky Derby Day program amounted to $192.6m, down 1% from 2015’s record. Wagering on the actual Kentucky Derby race fell 10% year-on-year to $124.7m, the lowest figure since 2011.

On-track wagering was up 2% to $23.5m on the day’s total package but down 6% to $11.3m on the marquee race. Business was far more brisk at CDI’s ADW site TwinSpires.com, which reported the day’s wagers up 29% to $26.8m, while racing on the marquee event was up 22% to $16.6m.

But the day was a disaster for the US operations of UK-listed betting exchange Betfair (now part of the enlarged Paddy Power Betfair group), which saw its US-facing ADW site TVG go offline for nearly three hours on Saturday.