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Guess some of that vat money is now being used to promote the revamped pools business? I'm not sure how it would work at the tills as Spo are going for the on line customer. I'll be up Smiths tomorrow to find out more.
News to me driveat15--- but if so would be a great move especially as the 'conlottery' jackpot is down to £3.5m on a Saturday and if backed up with a TV advertising blitz! I did a quick straw poll in my local and 4/10 had given up playing Wed & Saturdays and a 7/10 had given up the Wed game. This gives us a marvellous opportunity to move the pools back into the limelight as football betting is now more popular than the nags. BC must be ruing the day they didn't have the gumption to buy the pools business....jeez where are you going to get 40% dropping to the bottom line? Bad mistake. Keep your eyes peeled driveat15!
I noticed a large cardboard box in the entrance to WH Smith's today. It's covering something up and has a large poster on it advertising the Football Pools and saying coming soon 26th Jan. Have Sportech struck a deal to distribute the pools through High Street stores? Possibly opening us up to a wider, more traditional market for the pools amongst those who don't do/trust online betting? Looks like they could be placing the pools at the tills next to the National Lottery sales? Not sure what it means or how many high street stores are involved but this could be a great move for the pools?
Shares closed at 60 (+1) n/c on 2015 close. There were no notifications of interest...It wasn't until wk18 that the High Court ruled in our favour re: vat--the shares climbing 12 to 75 on the day. HMRC's appeal was refused by the COA on wk 21. Dec 8th,(wk49) saw final victory for Spo....shares rose 9 to 87......we still await final payment of £4m.
£0.876M in buy value (2 trades) doesn't budge the sp which is par for the course these days. Whether this is new interest or not...I'm not sure but bodes well.
Two lumpy trades gone through for 554k shares value £504.000.00 gone through the ticker. Someone's confident.
Major holders control 79.8% of the issue (HG the largest) that total is for iis over the declarable 3% So other iis may have as much as 10% of the rest and pis taking up the balance of c 20m......
....Sportech expects to receive the balance of £4m shortly.....that was Dec 8th, 5 weeks ago. Guess that's shortly when it comes to HMRC paying up!-------Hopefully it's costing them in interest!
I gave up on the lotto when they added 10 more nos. In the years of playing the lottery since 1994 I have won a total of £55 for an outlay of c £4200. Now i might be the unluckiest punter there is but jeez-----enoughs enough! My lotto win- losses are inc in my year end +/- I'm saving £208 a year now which will go towards this years pools games which is a lot more fun and.......you never know!!
What are your chances of winning a £million with a £10 bet. A Cambridge mathematician calculated the odds in playing different forms of gaming------the lotto was the worst at a 1 in 1.4m (6/49). Followed by the Pools at 1 in 640k. Second was sports gaming at 1 in 248k and the best was Bingo 1 in 200k----------Still heavilly against the punter and whatever your preferences your up against it. I steer clear of lotto nos games as that's chucking money down the drain and opt for games that require a little thought and skill--------while I know I'm never going to win a £million, with the range of my bets (most sports/pools) I'm happy to make 10% on monies staked over a years betting-----------
The bod might go the route of paying off our debt in one hit (if we can?) to save c £6m in annual interest. This would leave us c £20-25m after all costs re the vat win (fees etc..?) if we are liable? They might consider reducing debt by say half as our cash flow could easily cope. This would give us around £40-50m to use for US expansion/pools promotion for if we are keeping the streamlined pools div it's essential to boost player nos. With the lottery having taken a big hit to players thanx to the stupidity of adding 10 more nos/raising the cost and news of a player fiddling a jackpot-----surely we should be targetting all these players who have given up on the lotto?--------For sure our latest promo stuff £3M up for grabs twice a week and a top prize of £5M this Sat all for £1 rivals anything the lottery can offer--------but how many know about it? Now the collector network has been mothballed and on line reigns in playing the pools we are more profitable than ever. We should be aiming for 500k players a week by end 2017-----we have the money to achieve this and remember the cash drops straight to the bottom line after we decide the pay out etc...
Highest the sp has been for a number of years (90) not surprising given our vat win of c £98m. With around 50% of our ebita coming from the US, currency translation should be in our favour when results announced early March. We might even get a special dividend which I'm sure the iis have been pressing Penrose to award----------personally I would take shares in lieu of a cash pay out, however small as I resent paying tax on monies already taxed. ------------I would also like to know whether Spo have decided to keep our pools division or is it still 'up for sale'? Another £100m wouldn't go amiss but it's a trade off between are we a stronger co with that extra cash or one regularly turning in £15m from the Pools?-------I'd go with keeping the Pools as any acquirer would have a well diversified spread of businesses, world wide spread (India especially) & no Govt interference which makes us a more attractive target. Can see a big leap forward this year.
Hi cellis...migrated from SM?....came 2nd in Sat racing done by 3...the Internet has done for the shops imo which will become nothing more that arcades full of one armed bandits and if the Govt get their way not long for existence. No loss as far as im concerned.
I visited WH on Saturday , won for a change , very few people now go into a betting shop and stay and watch racing , a very small percentage back horse---- its bandits , and football and I remember days went at 3 o'clock the shop was packed , that changed after the increase in pub opening hours and decreased even more when the lottery came out . The football pools also suffered a massive drop in revenues , if they limit the stakes and prize money on the bandits most would shut .
If you are one of the few punters left on earth who visits betting shops be prepared to be disappointed for as from today, Sads Co & Betfred have decided they can make do without pictures from Britain's biggest racecourse group------all you will get is a commentary from some geezer who will watch the live races in a pokey back office and be relayed into the shops.-----How long before 'boardmen' are back? Do Sadsco care their customers are being denied the full racing expierence (available to WH & PP punters) not one bit. They only want you in there playing the crack machines which are programmed to skin the punters unlike the geegees! -----------Guess if there's no WH or PP in your small town your screwed but then you don't visit these mausoleums do you?
As expected at the lower end.....c £260m.
December turned out a bust for the bookies as results went the way of the punters for a change. Sky bet the Internet gambling operator described Dec as the worst month in living memory adding that it lost £8m on Boxing Day alone. With 15% of the market think what it did to WH festive cheer!? Guidance of £260-280m looks like dropping to the lower figure-------as if this wasn't bad enough headwinds are blowing in potentially crippling restrictions....banning tv advertising before 9pm... limits on FFOBTs cutting the maximum stake from £100 to £2 a spin-------That would knock a big hole in the bottom line of the major firms. With WH latest botched attempt to merge with the Canadian PS outfit pressure is mounting on G.Davis who removed J.Henderson to steer WH off the rocks of profit warnings and appoint a CEO for starters. WH update the market tomorrow---------Betfred of Tote fame reported a return to operating profit of £81m in the year to Sept on increased t/o of £579m.
Coming up to 4wks since HMRC was put in the dog house and told to pay up and smile while your doing so! So how come they ain't paid us? Pay your gas bill late and they slap you with a late payment charge of £15----------I hope Penrose does the same! What a bloody outfit.
Several broker forecasts for this year have Spo in the 100'S. .....Peel stand out at 140 which is above my expectations this year. I'm not even thinking of a compound 'result' which might be another long drawn out affair so best ignored-------F/Y results due early March-----last year on results day the sp was 51. (Nav 61)------so we'll be up on that!
A happy, profitable-------- New Year to you and all those long suffering Spo holders. Too early to say this is the big turn around----but if it aint?--------jeez best not think about that.
Name of the game!....the winner always losses! In our case opportunity cost these last 10 years....? Heh ho..could be anything?----------but given that any court case is skewed against the plaintiff at least we have bucked those odds---------makes you wonder back in the day when the award was worth c £30m the idiots in the HMRC continued with this losing case--------thank goodness! Noone ever said there was any brains in that Dept of State------commensurately displayed here!------Give that man a raise!-----Ossertst-----was he on our payroll?-----heh ho!
Well at least that £4m is earning some interest.
I reckon on receipt of the £4m from HMRC we will have c 50pps cash in the bank at year end. Our current debt is c 29pps. At current sp our operations are worth little more than cash held and as these are likely to produce conservatively 3pps net we could have 53pps leaving c 31pps for the rest of the company. That is extremely low for the quality of earnings and cash flows Spo generates. I'm optimistic 2018 will see Spo making advances particularly given Trumps designs on getting the US back to work and the economic stimulus this will give to the labour force. We will be beneficiaries of any extra cash in pocket the US Joe has to spend. Thank goodness Penrose took us across the pond all those years ago. Right place, right time with the caveat that Trump concentrates on the economy and not on overseas grandstanding.
Dec, 8th vat appeal won. HMRC delaying payment of the £4m they owe us, are they considering an appeal to our Euro friends?
Notification of change of trustee re: Hemmings 17% stake. Rumours of him selling out are wide of the mark.