Good News From Sportingbet
Published: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
GOOD NEWS FROM SPORTINGBET
A bright spot in a disappointing week for online gambling stocks
Top British online gambling group Sportingbet brought a breath of fresh
air to the week's pessimism over Internet gambling prospects when it announced
it's results mid-week.
The group, which includes Internet poker giant Paradise Poker among its
companies shrugged off the collapse in confidence in the future of internet
gambling, the UK business press reported, by posting a fivefold increase in
profits and a 50 percent rise in the amount of gambling by its customers.
Referring to the market pessimism, which started with a comment from the Party
Gaming CEO that the poker market was slowing down Sportingbet chief executive
Nigel Payne said: "The whole thing has been overblown. From where
I am standing, volumes up 50 percent this year after being in business for seven
years is something any company in any industry in any part of the world would
want.
"Our poker rake is up 71 percent year-on-year and 22 percent quarter on
quarter. That is is not a slowdown."
Sportingbet, whose shares have fallen a fifth in a month, has been caught up
in a GBP 5 billion sell-off of internet poker room and cyber casino stocks,
which has seen some companies halve in value.
Sportingbet's pre-tax profits were GBP40 million in the year to 31 July. Almost
half of that came from its poker operations at Paradise Poker.com acquired last
year, with underlying profits from its sports betting business up 54 percent.
Payne claims that his 'multiproduct' business model works better than poker-only
or casino-only websites.
