The leading European sportsbook and gaming operator announced its Q4 and year end results. Gross winnings revenue for the fourth quarter were £24.5m and for the year £81.4m, with profits from operations of £3.7m and £21.4m respectively. At the end of the year, following the acquisition of Maria holdings, the company had almost 310,000 active customers.
“Exceptional charges, mainly in respect of Unibet’s exit from cycling, together with increased marketing costs pressured quarterly earnings to unsatisfactory levels. The termination of the cycling sponsorship due to the denial of participation in major Pro-Tour Cycling races has resulted in costs of £2.1 million in Q4. In addition, management has decided to take a full year provision totalling £0.5 million for the previous, now vacated, London office lease given the adverse real estate market. The increase in marketing costs is mainly a result of further usage of revenue share and affiliate programs to drive higher customer growth,” said Petter Nylander, CEO of Unibet.
“The underlying business shows improving growth and strong customer intake. For all regions we see healthy growth for Sportsbook and Non-Sportsbook products with a 30% total increase before bonus cost versus fourth quarter 2006 and 15% annually. The Sportsbook margin in the quarter was 7.5% before bonus cost driven by favourable sports results and improved Live betting margins. In Sweden poker is back to growth in the quarter versus last year and had close to 10% growth versus third quarter 2007. Furthermore, the active customer base has continued to increase for both Unibet and Maria Holdings with a total increase of 15% compared with previous quarter.”
“We started 2008 with a significantly upgraded website, which already shows proof of improved productivity and enhanced customer experience on a solid, scalable platform. We have a stronger structural capital, an extended product offering e.g. Maria Bingo, and see growth across all regions and products. Our focus now is to capitalise on this position and deliver strong cash flows while continuing growth.”
In other news, online casino software provider Net Entertainment reported a record turnover for 2007 on the back of 18 new clients for its CasinoModule product, including several Malta-based sportsbook sites, while Entraction signed an agreement with Cherry’s subsidiary PlayCherry.com. to provide the online site a complete software system for poker, sports betting and casino.
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