SPORTINGBET, the online gambling operator, said yesterday that it had received bids for its operations in the United States and was racing to sign a deal before President Bush signed off an American ban on internet gambling.

The company said that, in the absence of a sale, it would close its US-facing websites by lunchtime tomorrow, when the President is expected to approve the Bill.

Rivals, including PartyGaming and 888 Holdings, have already announced plans to stop taking bets from American punters.

Sportingbet, which derives almost two thirds of its business from America, said that any sale was “unlikely [to] realise significant cash consideration”. One source suggested that no money would change hands but that a sale would save on redundancy costs. About 300 jobs are at risk in London, Australia, Asia, Costa Rica and Antigua.

The suitors are understood to be private companies in offshore locations, including the British Virgin Islands.

Sportingbet also confirmed yesterday that Investec had quit as its financial advisor, with sources suggesting that the bank had decided to cut all ties with internet gambling. It will be replaced by Daniel Stewart & Co, which advised the company on its Ofex listing in 1999.

Leisure & Gaming, an AIM-listed rival, said that it had also received approaches for its US business. “All the US business is likely to carry on under private ownership, and the impact on customers should be minimal,” a source said.

Analysts said that the approaches to Sportingbet and Leisure & Gaming showed that the American ban would drive internet gambling underground. One said: “Public companies are getting out because they would risk being charged with money-laundering or aiding criminal activities. But they will simply be replaced by faceless private companies whose ownership will be impenetrable.”

Bodog.com, of Costa Rica, owned by Calvin Ayre, the Canadian billionaire, said that it would continue to take American bets.

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