The former chief executive of online gambling company BetOnSports was freed on a bond of one million US dollars (£528,000) yesterday after spending nearly a month behind bars following his arrest on racketeering and fraud charges.

David Carruthers, from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, had been expected to be freed in St Louis on Monday but it took days to work out technical details of his release from federal custody.

Among those details - a dedicated phone line had to be installed at his home and Carruthers must remain in the St Louis area until his trial. The charges against Carruthers are part of a 22-count indictment against London-based BetOnSports PLC being prosecuted by US Attorney Catherine Hanaway in St Louis.

Carruthers was chief executive of the company until shortly after his arrest, when he was fired. The case is one of the largest US prosecutions of an online gambling company and has caused BetOnSports to close all of its US-focused operations.

It has caught the attention of the online gambling industry.