The Austrian bookmaker reported a 208% increase in turnover from its betting operations, to E275m, compared to the same period last year.
Total gross winnings from betting operations, casino, games and poker, more than trebled to E36m, despite the gross winning margin from betting operations decresead to 9.1% from 9.9% during the second quarter of 2004.
The casino operations showed the better numbers, with a doubled turnover (E269m) and a stable gross winning margin (2.9%).
The poker room launched during the third quarter of 2004, generated a gross win of almost E2m, while another E1m came from the games division.
The operating profit before tax was E2.6m in the second quarter and E4.5m for the first half of year.
The number of active sports betting customers rose 112% to almost 300,000, with over 120,000 new customers, despite an increase in acquisition costs, attributable in part to a higher proportion of expenses for promotion bonuses designed to reactivate already registered customers who had become inactive.
The company increased significantly marketing expenses as it is looking to exploit the potential of the young European online betting market.
BaW invested in co-operations with well-known soccer clubs like FC Barcelona and Juventus Turin, the Hungarian national soccer team, the “Moto GP” motorcycling championships, and the ATP tennis tournament in Kitzbhel, while it extended the agreement with the Redbull Formula 1 racing team.
The Vienna public prosecutor dropped the investigations into the complaints filed by the Salzburg Anonymous Gamblers Association (ASS), which claimed that BetandWin violated the Austrian law on games of chance by offering casino games and lotteries on its home page.
ASS also asserted that BetandWin engaged in tax evasion by failing to pay any taxes, but the bookmaker responded that its subsidiary BAW International is subject to Gibraltar, rather than Austrian, law.
BetandWin entered into a joint venture with Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance, one of the world\’s leading universities in the field of addiction research, with the goal of developing a set of measures to prevent gambling addiction.
The bookmaker was also one of the promoter of ESSA. The European Sports Security Agency has been established in co-operation with the European Betting Association in response to several cases of betting fraud in European soccer. ESSA\’s goal is to use data made available by all EBA members to detect the signs of betting manipulation as early as possible, and to inform the relevant sports governing bodies.
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