The Malta-based bookmaker announced that for the first quarter of 2006 gross winnings revenue were £17.4m, up from £6.9m in Q1 2005, while proft before tax was more than doubled at £8.0m (Q1 2005: £3.6m) and profit after tax increased to £5.6m compared to £2.5m for the same period in 2005.
Gross winnings revenue for sports betting, representing the net receipt of bets and payouts, amounted to £5.8m, up from £2.5m for the first quarter of 2005. Non-sports betting saw a strong growth in gross winnings revenue to £11.6M (Q1 2005: £4.4m), with poker representing 52 per cent and casino 40 per cent.
In Sweden, total gross winnings revenue grew by 85 per cent during the first quarter compared to the same period last year. Gross winnings revenue for the rest of the Nordic countries grew by 47 per cent and for Southern Europe by over 526 per cent.
The gross winnings margin for sports betting for the first quarter 2006 was 7.2 per cent, in line with the average calculated from January 2004 to March 2006 (7.5 per cent).
Number of active customers at the end of the quarter was 190,610, up from 89,752 a year earlier and 171,918 at 31 December 2005. The total number of registered customers surpassed 1 million for the first time.
Significant events during the first quarter of 2006 include the successful integration of the MrBookmaker business into the Unibet brand.
On February 2, five new language versions of the website were launched: Russian, Estonian, Hungarian, Greek and Czech. On February 15, Unibet sold its entire holding (23 per cent) in B2B Poker to its partner 24hPoker for SEK 15 million of which SEK 10 million was paid the same day and the remainder on 1 September 2006.
After the end of the quarter on April, Unibet launched three more language versions of the website (Romanian, Croatian and Portugese) and received accreditation from G4, Global Gaming Guidance Group, complying with their Code of Practice in relation to responsible gambling.
“Unibet Group is now fully integrated with a common brand in all our markets. We have a strong foothold in the Nordic countries, Benelux and Southern Europe. We have launched our site in eight new languages and will introduce new offerings in the year to come,” commented Petter Nylander, CEO of Unibet.
“We are now wholly focused on continued future growth. We have over 1 million registered customers and in March we had a new record number of 4 million sports bets placed. We are fully motivated for this Summer’s exciting event, the World Cup 2006,” he added.
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