Sportingbet takes Q1 hit.

[Ian_go]

Sportingbet, the London based publicly traded gaming company posted a first-quarter loss.

This came after taking a charge for a pre-emtive withdrawal from the United States ahead of a ban on Internet gambling. Sportingbet also said its executives would still avoid flying to and via the US for fear of arrest. Sportingbet's shares, however, rose 3.7 percent to 42-1/2 pence by 0930 GMT today. This came about from solid performances by its European and Australian operations.

Sportingbet's share price fell from over 4 pounds in June of this year before individual U.S. states started cracking down on Internet gambling. The company has faced several challenges, all that have had a negative impact on the share price. The group's chairman, Peter Dicks, was arrested in New York the month before at the request of Louisiana, whose warrant charged him with "gambling by computer". Sportingbet sold its U.S. facing operations for US$1 in October, shortly before the United States effectively banned online gambling. It also had to honor an earn out with the former owners of paradise poker, paying them over US$33m in cash and a further 9.7 million sportingbet shares. The online poker room no longer takes US players, a segment that bought in over 80% of it’s revenue previous to the US anti-gaming legislation.

posted by Ian of egamingpulse