Despite the persistence of bear markets throughout the world in recent months, I-gaming stocks have held their ground relatively well in 2001. The 15 companies that make up the RivTrend Global I-Gaming Stock Index
TM, as a whole, have done alright since the beginning of the year, particularly because April proved to be a bullish month in the I-gaming sector.
The RivTrend index--generated by investment firm Investrend Research and The River City Group, publisher of IGN--is a market capitalization index that measures the performance of the 15 leading I-Gaming stocks trading in North America, Europe and Australsia. The index, along with its daily history since its October 2000 introduction, can be found at www.investrend.com or www.rivercitygroup.com.
The April 30 year-to-date performance of the Global I-Gaming Stock Index was up 1 percent, recovering 12 percent in April after a first quarter decline of 10 percent. For the North America I-gaming sub index, April 2001 showed a gain of 47 percent, bringing its year to date performance up to +44 percent. The EuroAustralia sub index
increased by 10 percent in April, but was still down 2 percent for the year through April.
I-gaming stocks performed well, thanks to Nevada's move to legalize I-gaming, the U.K.'s move to provide a structured regulatory gaming domicile and the fact that most I-gaming companies continued to report strong earnings gains. These factors especially influenced North America I-gaming stocks, which rebounded from lows after a 33 percent decline in the fourth quarter of 2000.
|
Year to Date |
April |
First Quarter |
| EuroAustralia |
-1% |
+10% |
-10% |
| North America |
+40% |
+43% |
-2% |
| Global Index |
+1% |
+12% |
-10% |
- dot com Entertainment (OTCBB: DCEG) was the top year-to-date performer (+279%), reflecting an escalating earnings report and a position taken in its shares by industry leader CryptoLogic (NASDAQ: CRYP).
- Virtgame (OTCBB: VGTI), best known for its specialization in boarder control technology to determine a players' locations, was up 172 percent in April to bring its
year-to-date performance to +138%.
- Other North American companies outperforming the North America sub index for the year to date include CryptoLogic (+93%) and Starnet Communications International (OTCBB: SNMM)(+52%).
- Scientific Games Corp (AMEX: SGM) was up 41 percent in April, and 16 percent year to date, reflecting, among other things, its improved first-quarter earnings report and the integration of its Scientific Games acquisition. (SGM was formerly Autotote trading on the AMEX under TTE.)