Member Info for JohnLewis79

On the leader board at no 7. No reason to get excited this has disappointed before but so do most of my others! Holding tight, like to see double figs by year end, might be a stretch but you never know as the$ has come off 1.55's to around 1.5055.

If you owned the Pools business as a stand alone making c £16m (ebita) what would you sell it for and don't forget the impressive GP? I'd want a minimum of the gaming cos average pe ratios, perhaps a tad less but I reckon that might be 15x earnings. Of course as a stand alone the sp would not be 55p, a lot higher on a lot less shares outstanding so as we can't quantify either I'd happily settle for 8-10 x earnings or between £100-125m lower end. If nobody met my price? Tough see you later.

Morning Bruce. Agreed HG dont usually buy pups! They are I'm sure privy to way more info than the average pis and with such a large holding must have confidence in the boards positioning of the company, blimey they probably know who's interested in the Pools and at what price? Be nice if we could get the sale done & dusted by Xmas so we can start 2016 with an overflowing wallet. The vat case looks like a Q1 starter?

Henderson Global added 320.240k shares in Spo taking their total holding to 58.067.362m or 28.15% of outstanding. They still have faith, why should we differ even as events conspire to drag down investors confidence? This has been a very long hold for me, certainly from 1987/8 pre Sportech so there's no way I'm deserting the ship now when who knows things may just turn in our favour for a change? However I'm prepared for the worst as the recent set back re a trial date leaves me with little trust in the judicial system.

I wonder if the lawyers clocks have stopped ticking? We need a result here as if FanDuel get turned over DraftDay will be in the courts in no time to challenge the judges verdict and that's going to be horrendously expensive!

HMRC in an act of revenge is set to impose a stealth tax on companies that win disputes with them. Osborne has slapped a penal 45% tax rate on interest pay outs to cos that win refunds as a result of losing a case brought by Littlewoods earlier this year. The Court of Appeal sided with Littlewoods in a dispute over £1.2BN claim for compound int on Vat going back 30 years. HMRC lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court. Thousands of cos are waiting the outcome so as to pursue their own cases among which are BAT & the Prudential. The special tax hike of 45% instead of the normal rate of 20% is being viewed as penal & unfair particularly when the Revenue was proven in error in overcharging in the first place. Needless to say this will be vigorously challenged. Bring on the lawyers!! Happy days!!

Maybe we should import a Judge from the US?................ One of these days we will be masters of our own destiny! Should the Judge uphold the SA submission no doubt appeals will be issued immediately. Last time I was in a stock slogging it's way through the US legal system I was stuck there for 10 years!

A ruling is expected in the "next few weeks" on whether FanDuel & Draft Kings will remain in business in NY State following the court hearing yesterday held at NY Supreme Court. After a lengthy hearing Judge Mendez said he would issue a decision "very soon on State Attorneys bid to shut down the betting operations of both companies before it goes to trial next year. NY state has become a test case in the fight to close down FS games as others line up to either regulate or close the companies down. Spo HQ will be looking on hoping the judge throws out the States Attorneys submissions! A knock back here while of no relevance re the Pools will be a blow to the fantasy games industry.

Is called Striders in downtown San Diego adjacent to the harbour and is the only legally operated venue in SD where gaming is permitted.

Sportech Ventures (California) has joint opened a new 8200 Sq ft restaurant, lounge and gaming venue where patrons can legally bet on sports. Situated in San Diego the facility has a gaming lounge with 150 tv screens covering a multitude of US & World sports.

A few early birds got in c 5.40-5.50 wish I had some spare! Bargain basement prices today, three for one since I bought! Jeeeeezz!

20% mark down they cannot look beyond their nose ends!

Results hammered by currency exchange losses!

DraftDay gaming group announced an agreement with Sports Tradex to acquire the ST database of customers for the DD platform. ST founded in 2012 has a strong and dedicated community of players on alternate "pick em" games of tiered formats away from the traditional football form. Draft day's unique BtoB offering safe keeping of customers data was a plus in ST joining with DD. DD has demonstrated it's advanced technology to support fantasy games. It's apparant that Spo sees a big future in expanding its catalogue of fantasy games as it's Pools business declines in popularity. Leveraging much younger players with disposable income is the way forward as the spend per head of the Pools is dreadful. However tomorrow FanDuel will be in court to rebut the Attorney General assertions re being of fit & proper persons to run such games. Don't expect a quick decision this could run and run.........and run!

We teamed up with Viggle inc to purchase Draft Day fantasy football.com for zero consideration and in return we provide the management and our regulated customer network. We hope to expand into further areas of the fantasy games market adding to DD which is no 3 in the US games market. But as you can see with FanDuel it's up in the air atm. No doubt a lucrative area to be in but should the court rule out the skill element a la spot the ball all bets would be off.

We have a 35% stake in Draft Day fantasy sports.

Fanduel the UK's premier player in the sports/fantasy games market in the US which operates in 40 states, has 5m registered users and will pay out in excess of $2BN in prize money this year is facing potential disaster. A legal dispute started in New York could spread America wide. NY state Attorney General demanded that FD be shut down accusing them of operating without a license. FD & Draft Kings will defend their position on Wednesday. In a further twist Fantasy sport games were allowed to cont unregulated while predominantly "skill" based as typically they were played out over a season and required users to change teams/personel to get best results. However tempted to speed up games & payouts players can pay an entry fee, select a team for a single game and collect their winnings the same day. In road the law - makers saying this is exactly the same as betting on line which is what the act was passed to prevent. FD launched in 2009 has had 7 funding rounds and attracted investments worth $360m. Other interested parties are WH & Sads (no mention of Spo) who are joining the bandwagon. More class actions look odds on to follow with the goal of reclaiming money lost to "illegal" bookmakers through insider trading (Tennessee an employee being sued for $10m after winning $350k) on FanDuel. Mr J Trost Co founder of betting exchange Smarkets says "it's very possible America will get rid of this completely" Should FD lose NY state which accounts for 10% of its user base this would be a body blow and costly to its major backers Google Capital & KKR.

Forget the Pools for a moment, our other two divisions are still producing the goods albeit not as much as we think they should. However the S&R turned in £8.3m (ebita) & the Venues £3.2m (ebita) for 2014, so hardly basket cases and of course we have added more "partnered" ventures since, of which the "fantasy" gaming has definite possibilities. Perhaps Betfred would be the main buyer of the Pools since we're so involved with the Tote upgrades etc...that would be a logical fit and massive cross selling opportunities that Mr Betfred would sweat! Can he afford to pass up this one time chance?

Wins for Spo digital & Racing as the Co is set to provide new tote & add on systems to Remington Park & Lone Star racetracks.

Ladbrokes Coral & Hornby! Sounds like a bunch of accountants!