PLAYING IT SAFE

9 November 2007

German lottery site plans UK debut


With the German legislative situation still in a state of flux, and the possibility of restrictive laws early next year, German lottery company Tipp24 seems to be hedging its bets with the announcement that it is to launch a UK lotto operation branded lotto24.

The UK operation will provide access to a basket of European lotteries and will be operated on a licence secured from the UK authorities last month.

The move follows the launch last week of Jaxx.com, a sportsbetting subsidiary of the German Fluxx.com firm but Tipp24 spokesmen were quick to reassure all concerned that there was no intention to enter the sportsbetting market in the UK.

Tipp24 directors will have plenty to discuss along with their UK plans - reports from major shareholder Earlybird Venture Capital last week gave the company a heads up that an unknown investor was making serious offers for Tipp24 stock from various shareholders (see previous InfoPowa report).

Tipp24's nine month and Quarter 3 figures just out show a generally positive picture for the German company, with nine month revenues up 17 percent to Euro 28.5 million and EBIT numbers up by 2.4 percent to Euro 5.2 million.

In Quarter 3 EBIT was higher than expected, coming in at almost Euro 3 million. The founder of Tipp24, Jens Schumann said with some pride that despite the uncertainty created by the German legislative pondering, the company had posted record earnings for the quarter.

The company plans to stabilise its market share in the dynamic online lottery market and expects further growth in billings and revenues. Analysts on average are expecting the online lottery firm to report revenue of Euro 40.78 million and EBIT of Euro 8.01 million for the full year 2007.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa