Member Info for JohnLewis79

I have tried on 3 occasions to get a copy of the AR with no success so have decided that my £10k investment will be better spent elsewhere.

Correction should read profit of £8.8m.

Spo have sold their 50% stake in NYX Gaming for Can $22.9m (£12.0m) realising an $8m profit. Should send the shares lower tomorrow.

Morning Bruce. Ryanair report this morning. Analysts expect a strong set of figures £610m +. Share price graph looks great! Wish some of my others looked like that!

Morning Bruce, I regret not buying some at 4 but may not at 8. I hate missing the boat and if I do c'est la vie! I remember looking over Boom but for the life of me couldn't understand what the hell the co did and as Henry Longthirst said if you cant write the rules down on the back of a fag packet....? Don't bother.Anyways good luck with them! Do you think 888 are in the box seat? The GVC tie up then hiving off different parts of BWIN may not play with their shareholders? Be nice to hold all three, but whatever the outcome I reckon GVC are best of the trio. PS where exactly is Umbria?Anywhere near the coast?

Morning Bruce, regretting I didn't take your advice on Boom! I see NC has upped his stake to near 5%. A vote of confidence?

Am considering investing here, previously in NBPO/REA. May not apply here? But of interest. http://apps.who.int/ebola/en/current-situation-report-20-may-2015

We need some urgently! A blood transfusion of new top management who can steer the co off the impending rocks. This can only be achieved if we focus 100% on the US and as a start, to sell up here and move our HQ to Connetticut or NJ. Disposal of the Pools is a priority, why the whole shebang was'nt sold off with Vernons ill never know. Moves should be in place by end Nov so as to react to the vat decision. A win would ease the pressure for a pools sale but go ahead it should. The loss of the California licenses was a blow and never explained satisfactorilly but probably as a result of the management looking the other way? Did heads roll? While GVC, 888, BWIN and others are all up for grabs as part of the current rationalisation we sail merrily on a sea of despond.

CB the decision in Nov will be the end of the road imo.Few cases reach the SC let alone go onto the ECJ. We need this wrapped up and forgotten about, win or lose! The sooner we move lock stock and barrel over the pond the happier I will be. Hopefully dumping Newby Manor so Hemmings can go play with his ponies!

Morning Bruce, now a bid for Spo today wow fancy that! You would be in the enviable position of 2 bids 3 cos. Oh wake up JL nothing happening at Spo.I expect its early for the various offer docs to be at hand but which of the two would you back? The GVC cherry picking sounds good (a la Sportingbet). I guess you may favour the bid from whichever co you have the most sstock? Difficult choice. With 2 competing bids non holders may be dissuaded from entering the fray.An interesting few weeks ahead. Now com'on someone show your hand and buy the Pools, you may even get a bonus vat rebate?

If skill as the UT stated how come no clever so and so has won the jackpot in 10 years? Blimey the 14m to one lotto is won now and then and that's a game of pure skill!(Yea right!) If vat is not payable on the lotto (pure chance) yet fairly regular jp winners occur how come vat is due on STB a game of skill (so ruled)l that nobody wins? Oh I get it, STB players are all mugs and lotto players serious students of the laws of chance and probability theory. I've done my brains in on the ins and outs of this case but nobody in their right mind thinks STB is anything other than pure chance allied with a modicum of skill (if your a football fan) which as the court ruled would be free of duty. Sense may prevail but I would not bet on the outcome.

Should be interesting even for an observer!

Bruce there's a very good 18page potted history with current updates etc available on Proactive investors forum titled Sphere raising the standard of critical care (2014) Hope this helps. JL.

Gatecrashes Bwin bid! Expected announcement tomorrow.

He sold out around £11. Took his girlfriend to Cyprus where he had built a villa. I heard a few years later he suffered a massive heart attack three months into his retirement! So he never saw Polly hit £36! Yes, an Englishman abroad!! Met many in my time (insufferable so and so's ) I belong to the old colonial school of Far Eastern gents who did not suffer *****s gladly. In my Malayan days Scotsmen ruled the roost and a finer bunch you would be hard pressed to meet. Bigest regret of my life was not marrying a local girl ( to get Malay ) citizenship as the Govt were kicking out Europeans under a Malayanisation plan. Goodness me all that in the early 60's I cannot really believe any of that happened to me. I'll stop wittering on...I expect your sitting on your verandha, sun up, glass of ... too early for that, plotting your next investment!

For what its worth a pal of mine who has the most extraordinary luck with stocks is very keen on Easyhotel bought in on the IPO. Have not done much since but one of those groundfloor shares.I can see the attraction but no spare cash atm. Thought I'd pass it on. Not a tip Bruce as I know your shrewd enough to sift through recommends. If I win the lotto tonight I'll be buying! Oh yes when I swerved Polly guess what I bght? Effn Ladbrokes!!!!!!!! My pal retired to Cyprus on the strength of Polly. Stuck £2000 in a loser that could have been my FU money!!!!

Hi, Bruce the Sportingbet acq turned out a winner! I see Bwin rose 11% on GVC saying they wished to acquire the entire share cap of Bwin and then to reverse into Bwin assuming holders okayed the deal? Bwin said they were in discussions with a nos of third parties and had received proposals. Sounds as though this could get messy! As ever there will be a price to pay so I guess who's gonna be left holding the baby? Seen 888 doing really well another one that slipped through my grasp! Intention was to top slice my SPHR & GNL and get some GVC but 40% and 8% respectively under water on those two has kiboshed that idea! SPHR is a mystery despite getting Woodford to invest £4m (his first investment for his new PCAT) inv trust which recently came to the mrk the shares have fallen 11%. A huge endorsement for Sphere from the most successful investor for many a year and still they tank! Oh well I knew I was in for a 3-5 yr view with the co being bought 17/18, hoping for a takeout price anywhere between 50-100 will suit me fine. Good luck with GVC do you have a feel for the merger? Envy you living in Umbria despite the red tape! Was always my intention to retire abroad but some poor judgements on stocks (not getting in on PPeck at 8p was one) and the 87 crash when I got caught badly account trading and being unable to close first thing Mond as the bloody brokers wouldnt answer the phones! Cost me a packet, hence my status in a grotty part of S.London. I console myself I might well have died of liver disease as time, money and cheap wine is a fatal combination for me. Reduced circumstances see me still breathing so some good came out of it! Speak soon JL.

Hi Bruce, yea am struggling along these old bones of mine! Are you on holiday in Italy? Love to go there before its too late, only time I ever went to Italy was in the days as a schoolkid flying back to Kenya( on hols) on the old Argonaut that landed in Rome (mid 50's) we stopped off for a couple of hours before the next leg to Bhenghazi, Khartoum and Nairobi. No ive missed the GVC stuff been tied up with SPHR placing/open offer which I subscribed to ( no doubt to regret) and the Pools speculation on this bb. Is it good news for GVC holders? Last I looked GVC were low 400's seem to have come off quite a bit? Oh well the w/end is upon us and the markets closed so that's a bonus!

Be interesting to know whether the vat claim is part of the Pools valuation or resides in the co overall? I doubt it is part of the equation as how would a bidder factor in the odds of Spo winning? Spo may well say "look if we win it will be a min of £90m, so we want £ x upfront" No that won't travel imo its not quantifiable and the risk analysis people would kibosh it for sure. Should we win the cash will be for the benefit of the co as a whole not just the Pools and stb. Of course if someone was to offer £90m for the vat and £80-100m for the Pools division, well that would be another story? But nobody is suggesting that! Im sure Spo have hedged their vat position anyway, so a very interesting next few months.

I very much doubt we have heard the last of this! The approach was unsolicited and as all initial offers are as low as possible, they will more than likely return with a better offer or flush out another suitor. Seems the ball park maybe around £100m plus I assume any debt Spo assigns to the purchaser so could be 50/50 split. Spo intend to spend more on the Pools this year so looks like they won't be selling cheap! I guess we can live with regular 40% margins for a while longer.The push into the US continues the co is building up a very impressive array of licenses and partners in regulated markets (very difficult to achieve) and down the line I have no doubt we will become the premier gaming/leisure co in America. Selling the Pools is stage 4 of the process. A complete move to the US cannot be ruled out imo.