The incident, described in an internal report called 'Project Brazil Progress Report', called into question Betfair's security monitoring systems, as it did not discover the breach for two months after the initial attack. Hackers breached the company's systems on 14 March 2010, but it was only a server crashing at a data centre in Malta that alerted the company to the attack.

According to the Daily Telegraph, a report on the crime by consultants Information Risk Management described Betfair's IT security as insufficient.

"Information security was not implemented in accordance with best practice.

"Appropriate information security governance is not in place within Betfair and as a consequence the business has been exposed to significant risks," the report stated.

Meanwhile, Betfair said that it has now implemented all of the recommendations from independent reports it commissioned into the crime, and that it has "done everything we can to minimise the risk of this happening again."