Betfair Revenue Down 4% To £90.5m In Q3

Internet betting exchange Betfair has released its financial results for the three months up until the end of January, revealing a 4% fall in revenue to £90.5 million, compared to £93.8 million for the same period last year.
Overall, exchange revenue dropped to £56.3 million from £59.7 million a year earlier, impacted by regulatory changes in Greece, Germany, Cyprus and Spain. Developments in these markets has created problems for Betfair over licenses and tax rates and so the company has now decided to focus more on countries where gambling regulations are less ambigious.
In its UK market, however, the British company benefited from strong mobile betting and favourable sporting results to record a 6% increase in revenues. Betfair’s poker offering, on the other hand, fared less well with poker revenue labelled ‘weak’ in Q3 of its current financial year.
Commenting on Betfair’s third quarter games division results, a company statement explained: “The UK business performed well with strong UK casino growth offsetting weak poker revenues. Overall games revenue, however, was affected by the impact of international regulation and was down 8% to £18.0 million (Q3 FY12: £19.6 million).”
Looking ahead, Betfair said it felt confident of reaching anticipated group revenues of £370m to £385m and profits of between £65m and £70m  for the full-year.
“The new leadership team is in place and has started to implement the changes required to make Betfair a more focused and leaner organization,” explained the Q3 interim management statement
In 2010, Betfair shares floated at £13 but over the past 52 weeks have ranged between 641.51p and 905p. Since the latest Q3 results were released, Betfair shares are currently trading up by 2.76% at 707p.