365.L Regulatory News (365)

13 Jan 2005 07:00

ukbetting PLC13 January 2005 13 January 2005 ukbetting plc Pre-close period trading update ukbetting plc ("the Group") is pleased to announce that it expects to be able toreport results for the year ended 31 December 2004 that are in line with marketexpectations, after taking into account the costs of the final integration ofthe Rivals business acquired in December 2003. This has been achieved despitesports results in the second half that have not favoured bookmakers. The Group was EBITDA profitable for the last quarter of 2004, with the gross winfor the gaming division up at 11% for the second half, from 9.9% in H1 2004 and6.6% for the full year 2003. The business has experienced strong growth incasino, games and especially poker revenues, where turnover has grown by over356% during 2004. Non-sports betting now accounts for 60% of the Group's grosswin. The Group's content network has grown substantially from 2003 to 2004, and nowreaches on average 6.3 million users per month, viewing 225 million pages.Gaming customers acquired from Group content sites has been very strong duringthe year, with a sharp increase in the last quarter. This was due to amanagement decision to reduce competitive advertising on the Group's own networkof sites following statistics which showed that customers acquired from our ownnetwork bet 3 times more often than customers acquired outside the Group. The Board continues to promote the unique business model of driving customersbetween content and gaming and believe the company is well positioned for 2005. ukbetting plc expects to announce preliminary results for 2004 in early April2005. -ends- For more information, contact: ukbetting plc 020 7766 6909 Peter Dubens, Chairman Financial Dynamics 020 7831 3113 Edward Bridges / Juliet Clarke Notes to Editors ukbetting plc (AIM: UKB.L) is the UK's leading online gaming and sports contentoperator. Listing on the Alternative Investment Market in August 2001,ukbetting has since pursued an active acquisitive strategy and now owns andoperates ten sports content sites (sportinglife.com, sportal.com,bettingzone.co.uk and TEAMtalk.com, www.rivals.net, www.football365.com,www.planetrugby.com, www.planetf1.com, www.golf365.com and www.cricket365.com),an odds comparison site (oddschecker.com) and three wagering sites(ukbetting.com, totalbet.com and goldbet.com). Through these sites it ispossible to find in-depth information, and place fixed-odds bets, on a varietyof sports including horse racing, football, cricket, rugby, tennis, as well aspoker, casino and skills based games. In addition to these websites, ukbettingalso owns Campbell's Bookmakers Ltd, which operates 7 licensed betting officesin London and the South East of England. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange