Cherry, the Swedish holding owner of Betsson, announced its full year results highlighting a 45 per cent rise in group net sales up to SEK 452.4m and an operating profit of SEK 45.8m, almost tripled up.
The group\’s online gaming businesses, including Cherry Online, the company operating Betsson.com and CasinoEuro.com, and Net Entertainment, an online gaming software developer, continued their strong growth during the fourth quarter.
In particular, Betsson contributed to the fourth quarter’s revenues and operating profit respectively with SEK 42.5 million and SEK 8.8 million. The betting website has been consolidated into Cherry since February 17, 2005, and contributed to revenues for the year with SEK 111.1 million and to the operating profit with SEK 22.9 million.
“The high activity in poker as well as a stronger product range for the casino are the reasons for this success,” said the company in a statement.
As of December 31, Betsson had 242,000 registered players, an increase of 28 per cent since the previous quarter, while active players amounted to 36,000, an increase of 42 per cent compared to Q3.
Betsson’s poker again showed strong growth with 186,800 registered poker players compared to 145,500 at the end of Q3. During the period the number of active poker players grew by 47 per cent to a total of 30,900, while the number of customers playing poker for real money through their mobile phones was 2,100, an increase of 61 per cent compared to the previous quarter.
For the betting exchange the amount of players increased by 32 per cent from Q3 to a total of 4,300. Betsson sportsbook business, launched in May, 2005, increased the number of active players by 71 per cent, from 3,100 in Q3 to 5,300 at the end of year. The company had also 7,600 active casino players.
Malta-based CasinoEuro.com, which increased the number of active customers by 9 per cent up to 8,300, reported gaming revenues for SEK 15.3m during the fourth quarter and for SEK 48.0m over the whole year.
“During this period Betsson has dedicated a large amount of resources on the development of a new platform that launched in the beginning of February 2006. This platform gives us a stabile foundation for continued growth in existing and new markets” commented Pontus Lindwall, President of Cherry.
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