365.L Regulatory News (365)

12 Jan 2006 07:02

ukbetting PLC12 January 2006 12 January 2006 ukbetting plc Trading update ukbetting plc (UKB.L), ("the Group") the online sports content and gamingcompany, is pleased to report that trading for 2005 is in line with marketexpectations. Revenue has increased by 38%, year on year, with gross win at 11.2%, remainingconstant on 2004, despite a very poor run of sports betting results in thesecond half. The Group finished the year with 332,000 gaming customers, growthof 26% year on year, with over 50% coming through its content network. Casinoand poker revenues grew 65% and 78% respectively, and continued to reduce theGroup's dependency on sports betting. Consumer advertising in the content network rose 9% over 2004, with 41% growthin the second half. Monthly users for the content network were up 20% to 8.5million over 2004 and the number of pages viewed rose 38% at 300 million. Thevalue of the content network is particularly emphasised during key sportingevents, such as the Ashes, when the Group's sites received 10 million hits perday from cricket fans from around the world. With the continual increase in theavailability of broadband in the UK market, the Group is rebuilding its mainsites, namely sportinglife.com, football365.com, rivals.net and teamtalk.com toinclude video screens to enable the use of video content and create furtheradvertising opportunities for our clients. The Group's content network is becoming more and more valuable and sinceremoving competitive advertising from its group of sites, both the number ofcustomers driven organically to the gaming websites and the revenue per user hasseen a marked improvement. -ends- For further information contact: ukbetting plcPeter Dubens, Chairman 020 7766 6909 Financial DynamicsEdward Bridges / Juliet Clarke / Hannah Sloane 020 7831 3113 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange