Leisure and Gaming Earnings

10/14/09 - The Leisure and Gaming plc offline and online gambling group has posted another positive quarter, heartening investors after some difficult times.

The company announced this week that amounts wagered had more than doubled to Euro 27 million (2008 Q3: Euro 13.3 million), and that EBITDA had at last turned positive at Euro 100 000.

Sportsbetting was the star when it came to a breakdown of quarter 3 contributions, bringing in wagers worth Euro 16.4 million (Q3 2008: Euro 12.7 million) - a 29 percent improvement that generated a net win up 8 percent at Euro 2.8 million. The company experienced the same problems as other bookie firms - lower sports margins as a result of a string of favourites winning.

The news was less pleasing on the casino products, where amounts wagered plunged over 30 percent to Euro 3.8 million, generating anet win of only Euro 200 000, or half that of the comparable quarter in 2008. The company also reported a slide in amounts wagered on lotteries and skill games, which came in at Euro 500 000 (Q3 2008: Euro 600 000) with net win at Euro 100 000, again half that of the preceding year's third quarter.

Poker delivered a positive performance, providing Euro 10.3 million worth of business from which the overall net win went up 44 percent to Euro 4.6 million.

Chief executive officer Richard Creed commented that the third quarter was traditionally a quiet period in the industry, but that the company had in any case improved on last year's performance as it diversified in both geographic effort and products. He said that business volumes had been excellent, with active customer numbers at a record high.

“The fourth quarter is the busiest of the year and we start the season with an expanded number of partners. Poker activity through July and August, which is a quiet business period, was encouraging with volumes remaining high, providing a reliable contribution to profits. This trend has continued in September,” Creed observed, anticipating a brisk fourth quarter.

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