Sportingbet profits up fivefold

[mary]

Sportingbet happily reported good numbers today in contrast to Party and Empire.

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

Sportingbet comes up trumps on online poker
Profits at Sportingbet (LSE: SBT.L - news) leapt fivefold times, the fast growing internet betting company revealed on Wednesday as it proposed its first ever dividend.

The sharp rise in its full-year results went some way to allaying fears that the sector had peaked and the share prices of several internet gambling stocks rose strongly.

The Aim-listed internet betting and gaming group, which last month held talks with rival Empire Online about a 791m merger but subsequently walked away from a deal, said pre-tax profits had jumped to from 8.3m to 40.8m in the 12 months to July 31.

Shares in the company rose 6.5 per cent to 305.5p in morning trade on Wednesday.

The figures were consistent with analysts forecasts but Mark Brumby at Oriel Securities said that in-line numbers and an upbeat statement may go some way to stabilising the sub-sector.

Nigel Payne, Sportingbets chief executive, said: The scale of the groups operations has increased significantly.

We now have over 2.7m registered customers who placed 400m sports and gaming bets in the year - up 51 per cent - and generated an 89 per cent increase in the daily poker rate. He added that the trend had continued in the first months of the new financial year.

The company said that its presence in Europe had increased with the number of customers registering on its sports betting website rising by 55 per cent and the number of bets placed almost doubling to 20.2m.

I thought this was an interesting stat.

The average number of games played each day on Sportingbet's Paradise Poker site, which it bought last November, rose 66.3 percent in the year to July 31, while the cost of attracting each new player to Paradise Poker rose by $10 (5.74 pounds) to $139.

Outdated URL (Invalid)

 

[amandajm]

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

 

[Casinomeister]

Hi amandajm,

When posting a link to an article or forum thread, please provide a brief synopsis as well. Thanks!