The Russian authorities blocked the website despite the fact that betting on the platform is only available for US citizens. The ban on it operating in Russia will affect the whole of the sports.yahoo.com service because of its HTTPS protocol, which does not allow one single page to be blocked.
According a Roskomsvoboda spokesman, an organization that fights the illicit blocking of websites in Russia, many users in the country already say that other Yahoo services, including Flickr, are unavailable.
The Russian authorities have previously had issues with Yahoo. In September 2015, Roskomnadzor banned screen.yahoo.com – the platform’s video streaming service. Russia’s public prosecutor office said that Islamic State had published extremist material on the website.
Laws in Russia allow the watchdog to block gambling websites without going to court. Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, Bet365 and other major bookmakers are available in Russia only via mirror websites.
In August, Roskomnadzor blocked Wikipedia over a cannabis-related article, but lifted the ban hours after it came into effect. The watchdog told Russian media that the article in question had been edited to comply with the regulations. The prospect of having Wikipedia blocked caused a stir in Russian social media circles, as people shared ways of bypassing the ban.