Sportingbet In The Pound (Sterling) Seats

Published: Friday, December 03, 2004 Online-Casinos.com

SPORTINGBET IN THE POUND (STERLING) SEATS

Sound first quarter results from world's largest

Sportingbet, now widely considered the planet's biggest internet gambling company, has posted impressive first quarter results this week, confirming a strong move into the black ink well before the recent multi-million dollar acquisition of ParadisePoker (see last week's InfoPowa report).

Results to the end of October reveal a pre-tax profit of GBP 2.6 million, compared with a GBP 400,000 loss over the same period a year ago, which included GBP 1 million of exceptionals.

Sportingbet delayed the publication of their financial results until after the announcement of the Paradise deal, and said that returns from its sports betting arm were lower than could normally be expected because of an unfavourable string of results which saw a higher than normal percentage of favourites winning - a trend that affected the UK industry across the board.

However, an increase in the volume of bets taken (Sportingbet takes an average of ten bets per second) meant that the cost per bet fell to its lowest level of GBP 1.93. In Europe, the cost per bet fell by ten per cent, from GBP 1.80 to GBP 1.62.

Sportingbet's poker and casino operations, however, proved to be in robust health, with a very impressive 89 percent rise in gross profits, from GBP 1.8 million to GBP 3.4 million. This figure will increase substantially following the acquisition of Paradise Poker, which is the third largest online poker room in the industry.