Sportingbet Profits Soar To £10m In Q2 2011

UK online gaming company Sportingbet has just released its second quarter financial results for 2011 revealing an increase in profits to £10 million from £9.3 million a year earlier.
Sportingbet’s total revenue for the quarter ending January 31st had reached an impressive £56.8m from £52.6m over the same period in 2010, increasing the company’s six month figure to £107.9m.
Commenting on the encouraging figures,  CEO Andy McIver said: “Strong growth in Australia, Emerging Markets and Turkey more than offset the recessionary weakness of Europe, particularly notable in our larger markets of Greece and Spain. This demonstrates the attractiveness of a geographically diverse operation.”
Within its sports betting operation, football, in-play basketball, volleyball and handball have been instrumental in driving the company’s growth. In addition, Sportingbet’s mobile phone offering has continued to gain in popularity and now accounts for 10% of total customers.
However, Sportingbet’s online poker offering called Paradise Poker has still continued to languish in the doldrums and its net profit was down 36% in Q2 (Nov. to Jan. 2011) to £3.6 million.
In total, over the six month period ending January 31st 2011 net poker revenue had plunged to £7.1 million from £9.8 million a year earlier, with  Sportingbet laying the blame on rival sites still accepting US players. As the company explained:
“Economic conditions [which] affected our players and our product has proved uncompetitive compared to the poker sites that still accept US based players. The poker market remains challenging as the environment is very competitive due to the large US-facing companies continuing to utilise their significant US cash flows and high liquidity to aggressively target the European region.”
However, the overall financial results were greeted well by the market with shares in the company currently trading at 45.80p per share, valuing Sportingbet at around £230 million.