Wednesday, October 12th, 2005
Sportingbet Plc (LSE: SBT), a leading online sports
betting and gaming group, announces its results
for the 12 months ended 31 July 2005. In 2004, the
audited results covered a 16 month period from 1
April 2003 to 31 July 2004. Unaudited figures for
the 12 months ended 31 July 2004 have been provided
for comparative purposes.
Financial Highlights - 12 months ended 31 July
2005
• Turnover of £1,526.2m versus £1,177.6m
last year (2004 16 months:
£1,422.8m)
• Gross margin of £175.8m versus £93.9m
last year (2004 16 months:
£108.8m)
• Operating profit, before goodwill and exceptional
items, of £60.5m versus £20.8m last
year (2004 16 months: £21.7m):
- Paradise Poker contributed £28.4m to operating
profit (2004: Nil)
- Excluding Paradise Poker, operating profit up
54.3% to £32.1m
• Profit before tax of £40.8m versus
£8.3m last year (2004 16 months: £5.4m)
• Basic earnings per share, pre goodwill
and exceptional items, of 18.6p versus 9.5p last
year (2004 16 months: 10.0p)
• Diluted earnings per share, pre goodwill
and exceptional items, of 13.9p versus 6.5p last
year (2004 16 months: 6.8p)
• Cash generation from operating activities
of £71.7m (2004 16 months: £24.3m)
• Proposed maiden dividend of 1.0p per share
(2004: Nil)
Business Highlights - 12 months ended 31 July 2005
• Registered customers up 1.5m (123.1%) to
2.7m (2004: 1.2m)
• Average cost of acquisition of an active
real money customer of £137 (2004: £141)
• Number of sports and gaming bets up 50.6%
to 399.9m (2004: 265.5m)
• Equivalent of 13 sports and gaming bets
per second (2004: 8 bets per second)
• Equivalent of 13 games of poker per second
(pro forma 2004: 8 games per second)
• Average daily Paradise Poker rake up 88.8%
to $283,824 (2004: $150,277)
• Costs reduced by 14.4% to £0.66 per
£1 of standard gross profit (2004: £0.77)
Commenting on today's announcement, Peter Dicks,
Chairman, said:
"We are delighted with the performance of
the business this year. Our strategy of providing
customers with a wide range of safe, online gambling
opportunities via localised websites under one virtual
roof is delivering real shareholder returns. This
past year has been made particularly special by
the realisation of this vision for Sportingbet.
During the 12 months ended 31 July 2005, through
a combination of strong organic growth and acquisition,
the scale of our operations has increased materially.
We achieved record profits and at the same time
launched a number of new products and entered several
new markets. Our European business alone is now
spread over 26. We have significantly strengthened
our management team during the year. With diluted
earnings per share increasing 114% over last year
to 13.9 pence a share, we are pleased to recommend
a maiden dividend of 1.0 pence per share.
The benefits of the increased scale of our business
across a multi-product "one-stop-shop"
environment have been clearly demonstrated. I am
also pleased to report that we have also experienced
strong organic growth during the beginning of the
new financial year and consequently continue to
view the future with confidence."
Commenting on the results, Nigel Payne, Chief Executive,
said:
"I am delighted to report a record performance
for Sportingbet this year, a period in which the
scale of the Group's operations has increased significantly.
We now have over 2.7m registered customers, who
placed 400m sports and gaming bets in the year,
up 51%, and generated an 89% increase in daily poker
rake.
We are particularly pleased with the Group's customer
dynamics, which have remained in line with previous
years despite the increase in the scale of the business.
Important indicators such as customer acquisition
cost, bet size, bet frequency and attrition, have
either remained in line with last year or in some
cases improved. The stability of these indicators
demonstrates the power of Sportingbet's multi-product,
global offering and our ability to drive organic
growth cost efficiently, without compromising the
quality of customer attained.
At the start of the new financial year this trend
has continued. Organic growth is strong and customer
acquisition costs are stable. New customer signups,
sports bets and poker games are all at record levels."
For further information please contact:
Sportingbet Plc
Nigel Payne
Chief Executive
Tel: 020 7251 7273
Andrew McIver
Finance Director
Tel: 020 7251 7280
Smithfield (media)
George Hudson
Tel: 020 7903 0669
or 07803603130
IR Focus
(analysts/investors)
Neville Harris
Tel: 020 7378 7033
