14-02-2007 Unibet expects to grow by about 20-30 per cent during 2007

The "European Sportsbook of the year 2006" announced its full year results highlighting a strong growth in the Southern European market. Profit from operations was up 42% year-on-year to £28.4m, while profit after tax almost tripled to £37.9m.

Gross winnings revenue for sports betting amounted to £6.9m (up 15%) for the fourth quarter of 2006 and to £25.9m (up 48%) for the full year 2006. The gross winnings margin for the fourth quarter 2006 was 6.7%. At 31 December 2006 the number of active customers amounted to around 219,000, up from 214,000 the previous quarter.

"2006 was the year in which Unibet became fully established as one of Europe’s leading online gaming companies. In order to ensure continued success and growth during 2007, we chose, last Autumn, to consolidate our poker platform and upgrade other important functions within the company. We believe this will give us a competitive advantage over our pan-European competitors in the coming year,"commented Petter Nylander, CEO of Unibet.

In the UK, racecourse bookmaker Neville Porter Racing is hoping to raise £850,000 when it floats on the Alternative Investment Market on February 28. The company, which owns 39 pitches at 24 racecourses across the UK, will invest the proceeds from floatation to establish an internet betting site and to open a call centre.

BetGenius launched a new English Premiership microsite in partnership with Coral. Available through the Coral.co.uk website, the microsite offers news, stats, fixtures, results and team pages alongside with live commentary on each Premiership game.

Elsewhere, Betex has signed a ten year deal with China's Hebei Provincial Sports Lottery Management Centre to provide a £4.75m investment for the launch of a new lottery scratch-card game in the province. The company, which expects to earn around £60m over the next ten years, is looking to secure similar deals in other Chinese provinces.