First quarter earnings delight leading online gaming group

Wednesday 30th November 2005

Sportingbet Plc has announced record results for the first quarter of this financial year – period ending 31 October 2005. Highlights included:

Financial Highlights

- Gross margin up 167% to £64.6m (2004: £24.2m), up 82% on a pro-forma basis

- Operating profit* up 396% to £22.3m (2004: £4.5m), up 76% on a pro-forma basis

(* Stated pre goodwill and share option charge)

Business Highlights

- New registered customers up 619% to 0.7m (2004: 0.1m), 245% on a pro-forma basis

- New real money customers up 137% to 0.17m (2004: 0.07m), 67% on a pro-forma basis

- Active real money customers acquired at an average cost of £148 (12 months 2004: £137)

- Number of sports and gaming bets up 44% to 123.2m (2004: 85.8m)

- Average daily Paradise Poker rake up 88% to $430,858 (pro-forma 2004: $229,377)

Peter Dicks, Chairman of Sportingbet Plc said of the announcement, 'We are delighted with the start that we have made to this new financial year. Our strategy of providing customers with multi-product, safe, online gambling opportunities via localized websites under one virtual roof has yielded a record performance for the quarter by some distance.'

CEO, Nigel Payne, was equally excited, 'In the last three months we have grown our customer database by over 700,000 new registered customers, a rate of growth 245% faster than this time last year. Each of our operating regions achieved record profits for the quarter. We are also delighted with the introduction of the new US-facing shared purse technology which has generated over $2.4m of incremental poker margin and a further $1.0m of sports and casino margin in the quarter.'

Source: OnlineCasinoNews