Chairman Philip Parker said total net win to 12 June 2006 is up by 25% compared to last year, while active customers and new customer sign-ups have increased respectively by 12 and 9 per cent since the start of the new financial year.
“The robust growth in our sports book has been supported by a focus on customer retention and a relative increase in our bonus expenditure. Our casino operations continue to grow in line with our expectations against strong 2005 comparatives and we anticipate the launch of the new casino at Nine.com to deliver enhanced growth through the remainder of the year,” said Parker.
Leisure & Gaming continued its \’buy and build\’ strategy with the acquisition of Betshop announced earlier this week and the acquisition of selected assets of IGW Software for $4.9 million announced yesterday.
“Through the acquisition of Betshop we substantially strengthen our European offering and further diversify our global revenues, in line with our stated strategy. In addition to acquiring Italy\’s largest independent licensed sports betting group, the transaction will be earnings enhancing in its first full year and provides Leisure & Gaming with the European management team and a foundation business to realise our objectives in the European interactive gaming market. Following our acquisition of BetShop, we are taking the opportunity to review our group tax structure and will update the market on progress when we report our interim results in September,” commented Parker.
The acquisition of key technology assets from IGW includes both the current online software platform in use at VIP (including all hardware and hosting infrastructure) and the next generation platform for online gaming that is still under development. Leisure & Gaming intends to integrate the software developers acquired from IGW with the software development team acquired with English Harbour in order to drive the development of the next generation online gaming software which will be rolled out across the group. By taking ownership of both the software and hosting for its VIP and other business units, Leisure & Gaming expects to realize savings from the in-house development and maintenance of its gaming platform. It is also the company\’s intention to install the new software platform into any future acquisitions, thereby realizing operational benefits as acquisitions are integrated into Leisure & Gaming\’s infrastructure base.
“We continue to benefit from integrating the VIP, Nine.com and English Harbour businesses acquired last year, and we are also working closely with Stanley Leisure to launch a new online site, in the third quarter, catering to their UK based casino customers,” added Parker.
“With the first half nearly complete, we are pleased with the performance to date and look forward with confidence to the peak trading periods in the second half,” he concluded.
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