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 Welcome to
the News desk.
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| Betfair revenues leap after luring poker
punters |
01/10/2007 |
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Katie
Allen
Revenues at the betting exchange BetFair have jumped by a third after
it lured record numbers of punters on the back of last summer's football World
Cup and a revamped poker game.
Marketing and a new online casino also
helped Betfair enjoy a 57% leap in active users to more than 433,000 in the
year to April 30, according to the private company's results published today.
That drove up like-for-like revenues by 30% to £182m as Betfair shrugged
off a tough regulatory environment. But one-off investments of about £12m
meant pre-tax profits dipped to £25.3m from £36.5m a year earlier.
While rival companies have been hit by an American crackdown on online
gaming, BetFair says it has been unaffected thanks to a long-standing policy of
refusing bets from the United States.
But it has sought new customers in other countries
as it moves away from dependence on the UK market. Customers outside Britain
contributed 38% of total revenues last year, up from 32% in 2006.
Betfair has licences in the UK, Malta, Germany, Austria and Australia
and will soon start trading in Italy.
David Yu, chief executive, said:
"It has been a very exciting year, during which significant steps have been
taken towards transforming Betfair from a mainly UK-based betting exchange to
the world's leading legal e-gaming site."
Unlike traditional
bookmakers, Betfair allows punters to bet against each other, a concept it has
pioneered. Prices are set by punters and the odds are consistently better than
those from other bookmakers.
Set up seven years ago by former
professional gambler Andrew Black and Edward Wray, a City worker, the exchange
now has more than one million registered users. Betfair claims that its
technology platform processes up to 5m transactions every day - more than all
European stock markets combined.
The company, which is still 25% owned
by its two founders, once considered a stock market flotation but that is no
longer thought to be on the agenda. BetFair now plans to use its strong cash
reserves - it has £180m in corporate funds and no debt - to move into new
markets and launch more products.
In the last year it poured £22m
into research and development, including its cyber-casino and the integration
of Timeform, a horse-racing form guide business bought in November 2006.
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