The Sports Bookie Blog

Sportingbet announces big losses

Online gaming firm Sportingbet has announced a first quarter loss of £241 million, largely due to a one off £252 million exceptional charge for halting its US operations.

OPERATIONAL PROFIT :
A report from the company said that its current trading was in line with market expectations and announced an increase in gross profit from usual operations of 48 per cent, to £31.7 million, in the three months to October.

The group added that gross profit in Europe had risen 55 per cent in the wake of the US legislation, while its Australian profits increased by 33 per cent, leading to Sportingbet reporting that it had £52 million on its balance sheet.

US CLOSURE COSTS :
The £252 million exceptional charge included a £133 million write down of investments, a £106 million loss on disposal of investment and a restructuring charge of over £13 million.

NO US TRAVEL :
Speaking after the announcement chief executive Andy McIver warned that Sportingbet still had a travel ban on any director going to the US, as they feared further arrests. “It’s very hard to find out what issues individual states have with you,” he commented.

Add comment December 18th, 2006

US Gambling keeps on rising.

Americans gambled more money last year than ever before.

In 2005, wagering in the U.S. topped $83.6 billion dollars, a 6.1 percent over 2004, according to an industry report.

Some sectors of the gambling economy are doing better than others …

Commercial and tribal casino revenues rose a combined 6.8% last year to $53.5 billion, almost 64% of the nation’s total gambling dollars. While commercial gambling was up a modest 4%, the still-expanding tribal casino industry grew 11.4% to $21.6 billion.

Lottery revenues increased 5.79 percent to $22.8 billion. While traditional lottery games such as scratch-off tickets grew 4.8%, revenues from video lottery terminals grew 11.8%.

Legal bookmaking, card rooms and charitable bingo revenues grew a combined 1.9 percent to $1.5 billion. Books and card rooms, pushed by the growing popularity of live poker, each enjoyed double-digit growth. Bingo revenues declined 3.1%, to $825 million.

Internet gambling emerged as the industry’s top performer with 42.2% growth, with $5.9 billion taken from American cyber-gamblers last year.

Add comment December 18th, 2006