Soccer World Cup Increases Sportingbet Revenue

Revenues at Sportingbet has increased exponentially by 27% to £207.5m this year, this is mainly ascribed to a highly successful Soccer World Cup performance and the perpetual growth of its in-play offering.

Full-year pre-tax profit has dropped by 67% to £7.1m from £21.9m.  The Group had to pay the US Department of Justice $33M as per their settlement agreement the previous month, leading to activities tied into the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in late 2006.

During the World Cup a whopping £50m had been stacked on the operator’s sportsbook,  according to the latest information the group increased by 65% at a margin of 11.7%, the vendor is extremely satisfied with results yielded to date”.  In-play has grown significantly this year to 61% as opposed to last year’s revenue figure in European sports of 56%.

Jim Wilkinson financial director of Sportingbet in an exclusive interview with egaming review said: “That they were over the moon with their profits to date harvested by their sports book. This figure comes to approximately 65% of the revenue and has been increasing at a steady rate.  The bulk of our investment is tied up in it and that part has yielded the most revenue to date”.

He also stated: “It’s going to be tough to replace revenues yielded by the World Cup’s revenue; but their aim now is to improve their bets by at least 8% revenue growth within the next year, this could be done by means of aggressive marketing and improvements on our core product by means of persistent utilization in each market.”

We don’t expect massive turnover and profits on investment spend the following year, the sports betting vendor has upgraded its IT side of the business by £24m the previous year, its aim is to invest the same amount the next year.

Business on the European side has increased progressively the last year, gross revenue has increased to 30% from £93.6m to £121.4m.  eGaming Review has notified its readers earlier this month that Sportingbet has ceased to operate in France, however the company plans to return to the country when the economy is more feasible.

South America is in the scope of the operator now and Wilkenson said “that the company has just opened one in Chile”.   We can only go from strength to strength and built on our existing success in countries such as; Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and Australia,” he mentioned.

Analyst Nick Bartram from KBC Peel Hunt has tendered to purchase Sportingbet.  Referring to the settlement in the US he said: “Having paid the amount of $33M to the (DOJ) Sportingbet now has Carte Blanch to engage in the industry without any hassles.

Additional good news which highlighted Sportingbet’s business prowess to date, a mobile internet casino platform was launched six months ago in the UK, planning to start an iPad application in two weeks time.  The company has also extended its shirt sponsorship of English Premier League football team Wolverhampton Wanders and concluded a betting partnership with Tottenham Hotspur.

The previous fiscal year has seen the sports betting specialist transfer its shares in May this year to the main London Stock Exchange from the Alternative Index Market (AIM); this was a smart move and so far the company has indicated a substantial period of growth.