365.L Regulatory News (365)

6 Jul 2005 07:00

ukbetting PLC06 July 2005 6 July 2005 ukbetting plc Trading update The Board of ukbetting plc (UKB), the online gaming and content business, ispleased to announce that operations across the business have performed wellduring the first half of 2005. Total sales were up 30% on the same period last year with a strong performancefrom the gaming division, with sales up 37%. The gaming division now offers afull range of products including sports betting, casino, poker, backgammon andfixed odds games. In the first half the non-sports betting now contributes 61%of gross win, up from 44%, with the gross win margin improving from 9.9% to 11%.Poker and casino revenues in particular have increased by 106% ukbetting's unique model of originating gambling customers through its ownnetwork of sites has delivered revenue growth, without the need to increasemarketing costs. With 59% of ukbetting's gaming customers coming from withinthe group's network, this model is proving extremely valuable against a sectorbackdrop of increasing customer acquisition costs. ukbetting ended the period with over 308,000 gaming customer registrations,showing a growth rate for the first half at an average of 7,200 registrationsper month. The Board is pleased to note a 15% improvement in the frequencythat ukbetting customers bet, due to the greater amount of time spent by ourcustomers using our sites to obtain sports results, editorial, audio and videocontent. The content network has increased average monthly users by 44% on the sameperiod last year to now over 8.5 million users per month, with page impressionsincreasing 35% to 282 million per month. The content network has reduced itsdependency on advertising revenue from gambling companies, with the number ofexternal advertisers cut back from 9 to 4. This reduction in revenue has beenmitigated partly by an increase in advertising revenue from companies outsidethe gaming sector. Assuming normalised sports betting margins in the second half, the companyremains on track to reach full year market expectations. Peter Dubens, Chairman of ukbetting plc, said: "The strategy of originating our own gambling customers from our content networkcontinues to grow our top line while helping to maintain a relatively low costbase. The frequency that these customers gamble with us is improving as theavailable offering grows, and the decision to reduce the number of competitorsadvertising on our sports content sites is expected to improve this further.Against a backdrop of increasing customer acquisition costs, our network isbecoming increasingly important and we remain well placed for future growth." -ends- For more information, contact: ukbetting plc 020 7766 6909Peter Dubens, Chairman Financial Dynamics 020 7831 3113Edward 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