Member Info for KAMEL17

With all due respect Monty, Only a deaf and dumb mute would not have been able to foresee the inevitable end to the machines. The fact that you and I and indeed many others had continually said this needs no further confirmation. The thing is that it will take some time to occur. He is indeed a numpty and his clamouring to gain political traction through easy targets such as the energy companies and this, will be responded to by the equally inept Cameron who is just a posher version of a numpty. No doubt there is political capital in attack here. The truth is that it is merited and that these machines need to be better regulated. They do little more for Ladbrokes that providing a buffer zone of cashflow until they get themselves sorted out.

What's that - cryptic clue of the week? What newsflow would that be?

Jange's post was excellent, however my opinion mirrors yours. What his post does not do is to look beyond a few years. The lustre of the FOBT's will be long gone and the B+M sites could well be a real hindrance. The reticence to look to the future could come back with a vengeance. The opportunity to capitalise on the brand name is now and this will involve risk. Failure to do so will inevitably lead to a brand that may simply shrivel up and die. Mr Glynn and his current cohorts have been so risk averse that they have threatened the very survival of the company that they preside over. To be fair to them, the strategic thinking is probably there, however the implementation of the strategy is woeful and quite frankly not indicative of a Board with a real idea of where the business should be heading. There is ZERO prospect of growth from the shops and the other sources of income must be nurtured far more. For a company like Ladbrokes to be using outdated and unpopular software platforms is unforgiveable. I believe that Ladbrokes baulked at £1 a share for 888. How terrible a decision does that look now? This needs real aggression and clever marketing by someone with real belief. Here are a few ideas Buy Full Tilt from Rational, it's hardly pulling up trees for them, and rebadge the software. Use the Ladbrokes livery to re-energise the tarnished brand. Market it well and package it with a bespoke online offering of casino games in conjunction with Playtech and further package the Betdaq offering within the bundle. The offering of good poker software, perhaps even as a JV with Rational to possibly gain access to a larger player pools, combined with non standard casino games and the exchange betting under one umbrella would surely be a winner. The magic sign could then perhaps lead the way rather than trail in the wake of others. Just a thought but then again we are paying this guy £1m a year to come up with no ideas whatsoever. Could monty and jange not do a better job for half a million each?

There is little doubt he has been a disaster. The issue is who replaces him as he did appear to have good credentials in 2010 after all. The pool of candidates is not large and another dud would be extremely serious. I cannot readily see the alternative. As i have already mentioned Marketing is fundamental and I'd personally like to see the new CEO coming more from a sales background. Mr Glynn may be an excellent lawyer/ corporate financier but he has been bereft of creative thinking and appears to be incapable of taking risks. This business needs a fearless risk taker ,not a dithering risk averse accountant.

nomoney, The news is likely to be positive, it just remains to be seen how positive it is. My view is that the SP is already reflective of an expectation of good trading numbers from NJ. The trading update could easily move the price either way depending upon whether those expectations are met or not. I suspect that it may have little overall effect as it is unlikely that the expectations will be exceeded or indeed fall short by an material amount. In saying that, the KPI's will make interesting reading and most especially the casino numbers. I suspect that any positive numbers will also be bolstered by an additional comment that the numbers achieved were restricted through early teething problems and this is entirely valid. Perhaps the trading update will give some indications here of unsuccessful application numbers. The recent price movements since early November and the initial approval have been very volatile. with all upward pressure seemingly suppressed. The history of this company with announcements has not been a happy one for shareholders and all too often the results of these announcements are detrimental to the shareholders value. On this occasion though, it seems like a positive trading update is the most likely outcome. This is a company though that often flatters to deceive. One only has to look back of the last five years to see that despite generating around 2.5bn Euros in turnover it has not generated a profit over that period ( I ignored the impairment charges in 2011 as this was only a book entry). The "jam tomorrow" promises have worn thin with II's and only real tangible results backed up with sustainable EBITDA will alter this. The requirement to offload around an eighth of the ordinary share capital in 3 years has to be a major concern and may undermine the price for a considerable time. One would have to ask why did MGM or indeed Bwin not purchase these shares outright from the DeLeons if the prospects were so bright? This was the reason I had posted before that i thought the price would drift downwards. There are of course positives here, if you look for them, however they are mostly of the "jam tomorrow" variety and need to be crystallised. A few of the long terms posters have quite righty documented that the price can only move meaningfully upwards properly in maybe late 2014 when results are hopefully improving. In the meantime the volatility will remain. With this company a year is a long time to go without them dropping the ball for the umpteenth time I cannot agree with some of the others that the long term future is all that bright and there are too many dangers here. In short, you may or may not get a positive upward movement following the RNS however even if you do it may disappear quickly as it has done following the previous positive newsflows. I'm sure that all of the views, from myself and the many others here, have given you much to contemplate. As

So it was not you with a couple of cheeky wee top ups then. How thoroughly disappointing!

It appears that there were two buys of 730,000 shares this afternoon. Someone is feeling confident enough to invest. I'd have thought that the purchase of 1.46m shares should have affected the price though. Maybe the transactions shown were not correct.

To all those folks touting 99p by Christmas. I'm Mr Negative here and even I cannot see that. I'm holding 888 and these have been much more stable but the NJ news should at least provide upward impetus for those too. The Christmas holiday season may see a healthy uplift in the NJ traffic as the double whammy of the holidays and the reduction in teething problems.

Excellent news for holders of Bwin Party and 888 especially in the near term. On reading this though, I would not say that this a cast iron guarantee of no Pokerstars within the two years. A change of ownership may free up a reintrodution to the process. “The Division, within that period, may consider a request for relief to reactivate the application if significantly changed circumstances are demonstrated at which time the Division’s investigation of PokerStars and its affiliated entities and associated individuals will be resumed to assess suitability.” I'd agree that this provides slightly more comfort to Bwin in securing traffic however the key here woulld be how thin the margins may be. The article that maltaproperty posted on the analysts' concensus outlines the currently poor performance and the low conversion rates. With this Board, the likelhood of nasty surprises ar results time really cannot be discounted. The current poor performance and an element of the likelihood of upcoming positive steps in the US is already factored into the SP. The over or under delivery of these anticipated expectations appears to make this share volatile. The drift in the SP over the last three weeks indicate the market is underwhelmed and the drift in the price should surely have not been too unexpected to those contributors here. My own view is that the expectations for NJ are probably not at all high. Even moderately reasonable results that do not shock at Q4 may offer a boost to the SP. The reality is though that even the underlying clean margins from NJ may not excite. If these are dreadful this may cause a recalibration of expectation from the as yet untapped States. Looking to the longer term the prospect of an entry from say Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter or any of a number internet behemoths alongside a best of breed operator once the US markets open up must surely be considered probable. This would open up opportunities for all of the current players. One would have to realistically imagine that the swallowing whole of @ $2bn of revenues without a casino offering would permit one of these behemoths would pay handsomely,, faciilitating the exit of the Scheinbergs and thus cleansing the offering. This would allow the individiual States to sanction their inclusion without political backlash. The player numbers for NJ are perhaps a little disappointing to some of the stakehloders. I'd say that given the access issues that the numbers are actually pretty good all things considered. The true test is the traffic after six months when the market has found its natural level ( and whether it is profitable enough at those levels) Good luck for tomorrow folks. You may just get some of the recent drift back

You are pretty sure footed with your observations and I'm sure you are probably correct. I just get the feeling that the non comment perhaps says more. I just wonder whether they are keeping quiet until they can advise that it is totally and absolutely dealt with. Is it possible that that the now cancelled EGM may have been foolishly intended as a platform to air grievances on the CEO surrounding the decision to terminate NK's appointment? Behind the scenes, this may be very ill tempered and it may be that The Chairman as the only new entrant has been left to tidy up all of the legacy issues including the termination of NK. This may or may not be the reason for his reticence to bring up the subject at all in the presentation. I'm sure many of the shareholders were keen to know about this (I know that I was as I suspect were you) if for no other reason just to totally clear the decks going forward.

Thanks I seen this earlier. Is it not the case that a legal challenge is still possible, it may just not have been notified yet?

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly with your comments here. I am particularly delighted in the direction in which the Board is going and it appears that they are following a good strategy. This route had always been my preference and I feel it offers best value for the shareholders. I doubt that the business will be pulling up trees in the next 12 months however it also seems inevitable that we are going to benefit from a recovering business rather than an embattled and dysfunctional failing one The disposal of the metering business is likely to happen relatively soon and the comment that there are a number of interested parties is good to hear. If I recall correctly, the metering business has around 330,000 meters in circulation and even this as a customer base has a value. I think the Kennedys are possibly on the outside here and an absolutely clean cut, such as a sale to BG, would be preferable in my view. The removal of the FD is something I too would have expected to have been commented upon. I just hope that there is not a chunky payment involved following his dismissal. The matter is of course likely to be the in the hands of lawyers and this may be the reason for the lack of any update.

You must believe in Santa! 200+ by Christmas is very wishful thinking in my view. The Betdaq business is, when properly mobilised, easily worth £250-£350m and possibly more- but it isn't there yet. This will have to grow and it will not happen overnight it will be slow to start but will increasingly gather momentum if they get it right. There is no doubt that this was oversold on recent news and the underlying sentiment that this Board are unable to deliver. Everyone remains to be convinced. A positive run of announcements, without any banana skins in the meantime, culminating in good results from the World Cup and even limited traction (The Playtech tie up should at least guarantee some) in the online offering by June/July should see this safely through the £2.40 barrier. Even on achievement of this, there will be Boardroom changes and the landscape will be altered immeasurably as the online revolution continues. This Board is a collection of dead men walking and I foresee CVC or someone in their ilk taking a real pop at this once things start to improve. There is significant risk here and the aforementioned banana skins will always be a danger however on a risk reward basis there has to be an opportunity for a great return here. My only real fear here is that this business adopts further third rate advertising and this could hold back progress until they get this right. As ever DYOR and GLA

Thankfully, I do not make my living from being a typist, as I'd surely starve.

I meant to type no disernable volume

Without getting into whether this is a good or investment or not. Experience taught me, the hard way, that being over exposed to any particular share causes one to be far less objective than they ought to be. I learned this lesson a long time ago but it is a mistake I'll never make again. My total lack of objectivity lead me to average down and made a bad situation much worse. You should carefully heed Wolfe's words as they are very well intended and eminently sensible If you could lose big on this investment and it would not affect you too much then that's just investment risk, if it isn't the case you ought to consider your position most carefully. Good luck though, hopefully your ship will come in.

Agreed The SP is simply where it was at the start of October. There has been discernible volume traded since then and there is a danger of reading too much into this. Given how tightly the shares have been held since the Boardroom changes with most holders awaiting the update on the review and the trading results, it does seems unlikely that there would be any real volume disposed of prior to the announcements. Not long to wait though. The software that I use from Bglobal has been updated recently and appears to have much more functionality so things are definitely happening in the background. Good luck all

Is this perhaps a precursor to some good news? Does anyone know the date in early December when the interim results will be announced alongside the update on the review. I cannot seem to find it anywhere?

Pretty much my view too. Perhaps if the dimwit who came up with the wholly dreadful GAME ON! advertising should get his P45 first. Marketing is not all about money, sure it helps but it is fundamenallly easy to blow a fortune on 2nd rate marketing. The rates and the software offering need to be contiunually competitive too bur surely taking 20-25% of Betfair's exchange betting should not be considered impossible

I'm amazed that he managed to stay after dithering and wasting cash on both potential tie ups with 888 and Sporting Bet. Advancing with either of them would have left them in a better place right now. Both of these projects ended in debacle however until there is at least some upward traction the takeover option could possibly be regarded as remote. Any potential suitors could have had this significantly cheaper than now not that long ago after all. What's your view on the betdaq prospects ?With a fair wind and assuming a successful turnaround this may yet become a cornerstone of the business and i thnk many discount this entirely. As such any postive moves foward would not alreadt been reflected in any way within the current SP.