SportingBet 30 percent rise in third quarter NGR
5/26/10 – Gilt-tinged third quarter results from its Australian operations has enabled online gambling group Sportingbet to deliver another set of strong performance numbers to its shareholders despite the economic difficulties in the Greek and Spanish economies.
Results from Downunder enabled the group to post a third quarter rise in NGR of 30 percent compared to the same period in 2009 as net gaming revenue reached GBP 55.7 million for the three months ended 30 April 2010 (Q3 2009: GBP 42.9 million). Operating profit achieved an 18 percent increase over last year, rising to GBP 12 million (Q3 2009: GBP 10.2 million).
Q3 NGR from Australian operations rocketed 167 percent to GBP 10.4 million (Q3 2009: GBP 3.9 million), although 23 percent was made up of favourable foreign exchange movements.
The company's sports margin increased substantially to 5.9 percent compared to 2.9 percent in 2009. In Europe, the firm's sports betting activities achieved a 21 percent rise in NGR to GBP 29.2 million (Q3 2009: GBP 24.1 million), whilst online casino business in the region delivers growth of 17 percent to GBP 11.6 million (Q3 2009: GBP 9.9 million).
Online poker declined, dropping 10 percent to GBP 4.5 million as competition against major sites still servicing the US market intensified.
Chief executive officer Andrew McIver confirmed the company's intention to secure French online sports betting and poker licensing in order to operate in the newly liberated French market, but cautioned: "It is going to take us longer to get the IT compliant site that we hitherto expected based on unofficial conversations with French authorities. We are estimating it will take us months to produce an IT system that is compliant.”
McIver again expressed reservations about proposed French taxes, saying: “We still don’t know what some of the sports levies are going to be. If you make a 10 percent margin, and the starting point is a 7 percent turnover tax, you are down at 3 percent already. If you have to give 1 percent [of that] to the sports federation, you are down to 2 percent. You just need those sports levies to equal 2 percent, and then, what’s the point?”
