A bet too far for the City's 'Evil Knievel'

Simon Cawkwell, the arch trader who revels in the nickname Evil Knievel, looks like he has met his match. The man who claims he exposed Robert Maxwell, and made over £1.25m from trading in just 15 months, is facing an embarrassing and expensive defeat after a six-month fight to force down the shares of Sportingbet, the small online gaming group.

Mr Cawkwell is one of the City's most famous bear raiders. His modus operandi is to sell "short" – flog shares he does not own in the hope of buying them more cheaply when the price falls. Meanwhile he spreads negative statements about a company which are based on his own analysis of its accounts and trading position.

Often he will borrow shares from investors to cover his trading positions. This practice was brought into focus when it emerged that Laxey Partners, the firm putting pres- sure on British Land chairman John Ritblat, had borrowed a large part of the shares it used to vote at the property group's AGM last week.

Mr Cawkwell's "short sell of the year", according to his website t1ps.com, is Sportingbet. The company, headed by Mark Blandford, runs online betting operations from offshore centres such as Guernsey and Costa Rica.

Mr Cawkwell has claimed that the mounting investigation into online betting launched by New York district attorney Eliot Spitzer will harm Sportingbet.

Mr Blandford has denied this. He points out that the company operates via legitimate licences and has been involved in discussions with US law makers about appropriate legislation for online gaming.

Last week, after months of pressure on Sportingbet shares, they appeared to break free of the pressure exerted by Mr Cawkwell, rising 30 per cent in a falling market to end the week at 94.5p.

Sportingbet's advisers believe that investors who have lent Mr Cawkwell stock to cover his position will now press for their return, forcing him to buy shares and force Sportingbet stock even higher. It could be a rare defeat for one of the most feared traders in the City.