BetOnSports plc pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges, U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said Thursday, and could now face $500,000 or more in fines.

United Kingdom-based BetOnSports plc, a publicly traded holding company that owned a number of Internet sports books and casinos, is the corporate parent of the companies whose gambling operations are described in the indictment.

As part of BetOnSports’ plea agreement Thursday, Hanaway agreed that as long as the company lives up to its obligations under the agreement, including supplying witnesses and evidence in the pending cases against co-defendants, no further criminal prosecution will be brought in the Eastern District of Missouri relative to its participation in the Kaplan Gambling Enterprise between July 2004 and the present.

The BETonSPORTS operation in Antigua has told us that this will not have a great impact on thier effort to pay back all US players who are currently in thier 10th month of waiting to be paid. The company that plead guilty today is BOS, plc in England, while player payouts are going to come from BOS (Antigua). However, we see this as a positive for players, as Catherine Hanaway agreed to the plea bargain, “as long as the company lives up to its obligations under the agreement”. BETonSPORTS was ordered by the court to repay all US players back in November.