15-08-2007 Unibet reports unsatisfactory quarter

The Swedish betting and gaming operator announced a 60 per cent fall to £1.7m in profit before tax for the second quarter of 2007. Gross winnings revenue amounted to £16.5m, down from £18.4m in the same period last year. "This has been the punters' quarter," commented CEO Petter Nylander.

Gross winnings revenue for sports betting amounted to £4.2m for the second quarter (Q2 2006: £6.2m) and to £13.5m for the first half of the year (H1 2006: £11.9m). The gross winnings margin for sports betting during the second quarter was 4.0%, against an average between January 2004 to June 2007 of 7.3%. Live betting continued to increase its share of the sports betting offering and amounted to 12.2% of gross winnings on sports betting, with a margin of 21%.

"The lower margin is a result of a large number of favourites winning in the major football leagues, ice hockey and tennis tournaments during the quarter”. However, the sports book margin for the first half-year has been in-line with our expectations of 6.8%. The third quarter has started with a return to normalised sports book margins," said Nylander.

At 30 June 2007 the number of active customers amounted to 221,235, down from 239,929 at 31 March 2007, while the total number of registered customers exceeded 1.8 million.

In related news, Unibet announced its decision to withdraw the sponsorship of the Pro Tour cycling team Unibet.com at the end of the season.

Commenting on the legal situation in France and Sweden, Chief Executive Petter Nylander said: "During the second quarter the EU Commission has clearly stated that the monopoly situation in two key countries Sweden and France is a breach of the fundamental principles of European law. Despite increased activity from the EU Commission, short-term the resistance remains on a national level. Amongst other things this has adversely affected the Unibet sponsored cycling team, Unibet.com, from being denied to participate in the Tour de France during the second quarter. Even if the difficulties in France continue, our view is that the French and the European gaming market will inevitably be de-monopolized."