Gaming sector climbing after Sportingbet gaming revenues jump 23%

[clevfan]

Gaming sector climbing after Sportingbet gaming revenues jump 23%

By Nicholas Paler | 09:00:13 | 15 October 2008
Citywire Financial Publishers

The gaming sector was buoyed in early trading after Sportingbet revealed a set of positive full year results which led its chief executive to state he was 'cautiously optimistic' going forward.

The company - which incorporates online sports betting, gambling and poker - said it had achieved net gaming revenue growth of 23% to the end of July, up to £147 million, driven by its performance in Europe and Australia in particular.

It also announced it had completed a restructuring of the business, resulting in an improved operating profit margin of 15.4%, and although it still made a loss in total of £1.2 million, this is much reduced from last year when it lost £33.6 million.

The earnings per share was also improved, to a loss of 0.9p, from a loss of 7.7p in 2007, after the firm was hit by the ban in the US prohibiting online gaming.

The chief executive, Andrew McIver, said the completion of the group's restructuring had resulted in a more than three-fold increase in adjusted operating profit which left it well positioned to capitalise on the strong position it had made in its markets.

He added: 'The new financial year has started well with net gaming revenue growth in excess of 30% in the first two months. As such the board remains cautiously optimistic of the outcome for the current financial year.'

By 08:42am, shares in Sportingbet were up 9.3% or 2.5p, to 29.5p, while peers were also enjoying some upside. Partygaming initially rose 6.5% on the news, before settling up 2.5% at 154p.