Market Reaction To Sportingbet's Results
Published: Thursday, October 13, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
POSITIVE MARKET REACTION TO SPORTINGBET'S RESULTS CONTINUES
"The fastest growth period of our poker business has been in the last 10 weeks." says CEO
The welcome lightening of the doom and gloom of the past week over Internet stocks has continued as the business press pick up on Sportingbet's solid results.
Both online and traditional press were highlighting CEO Nigel Payne's positive comments and quoting figures such as pre tax profits jumping almost 500 percent to US$71.4 million, while operating profit climbed 291 percent to US$105 million.
The strong results pushed Sportingbet shares up 9.4 percent at the close of trading on the day they were announced.
Shares in rival firms also benefited from the feel good factor with Party Gaming and Empire Online both finishing the day up 9.8 percent and 8.8 percent respectively.
Sportingbet's chief executive discounted talk of limited growth, saying he saw no sign of a slowdown “in any area”.
The poker aspect of the reportage was especially noteworthy, because the massive rise in earnings at Sportingbet was in part due to a US$49.7 million contribution from Paradise Poker.
Paradise’s active customers rose by 88.5 percent to 212,000 during the reporting period with average daily rake jumping 88.8 percent to US$ 283,824.
Sportingbet also reported strong growth across the board with profits from the non-Paradise part of the group growing by 54 percent compared to the same period last year. Sports betting gross win was up 9 percent to US$125.3 million, but casino operations were the most impressive performer with gross win jumping 43 percent to US$79 million.
CEO Payne was widely quoted as saying he was delighted with the results from the first 10 weeks of the group's financial year, with current trading very strong. “New customer signups, sports bets and poker games are all at record levels. The fastest growth period of our poker business has been in the last 10 weeks."
Giving the industry a boost, too Payne said, "I can't call a slowdown in activity in any area," he said. "I talk to a lot of operators, and a lot of operators out there are very pleased about how poker has progressed."
