Czech Lottery Company Growing
Zdenek Zikmund, a spokesman for the Czech lottery company, Sazka, says that the company's preliminary figures for 2003 show that it earned $54.6 million last year. While lottery sales were more than $19.5 million higher than in 2002, the state-run company's overall performance was also aided by growing revenue from non-lottery segments, such as credit recharging through land-based terminals. CRA Rating Agency, a firm that monitors Sazka's financial performance, expects the company to continue to grow in the next few years, estimating profits of $81.9 million by 2006 and $97.5 million by 2010.
ukbetting Acquires More Sports Content Sites
ukbetting plc (UKB.L) has purchased the online sports content business Rivals Digital Media Ltd. for a consideration of £2.0 million. The acquisition of Rivals' six sports content brands-- www.rivals.net, www.football365.com, www.planetrugby.com, www.planetf1.com, www.golf365.com, and www.cricket365.com-- gives ukbetting over 5.5 million unique users. Although Rivals posted an EBITDA loss of £0.4 million on turnover of £3.7 million for the year ended August 31, 2003, it has kept a positive EBITDA in the months leading up to November. According to Peter Dubens, Executive Vice chairman of ukbetting, “The acquisition of Rivals and Football365 further strengthens our position in the provision of sports content, both online and for the mobile industry. We are now amongst the largest independent online sports information providers in the U.K. and this latest acquisition will allow us to further improve the scope and quality of information we provide to our customers. It is still our intention to keep the integrity and style of all the different sites that we operate, including the recent acquisition, whilst benefiting from a centralized overhead."
AngelCiti Eliminates Start-up Debt
AngelCiti Entertainment (AGEL.OTC) says it has eliminated all of its long-term debt through internally generated cash flow and equity. The company is now debt-free except for miscellaneous service provider bills and inter-company debt between itself and its subsidiaries. The company expects that this elimination should enable it to seek more growth in 2004 now that it no longer needs to pay down the debt from its start-up costs.
GTECH Pays Shareholders $0.17 Dividend
The board of directors for lottery firm GTECH Holdings Corporation (GTK) has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 17 cents per share for all shareholders on record on Jan. 16, 2004. The dividend is payable on Jan. 30, 2004.
Reports Released
Interactive Systems Worldwide Inc. (ISWI), whose subsidiary Global Interactive Gaming Ltd. operates the SportXction play-by-play betting platform, reported its financial results for the year ended September 30, 2003, posting a revenue of $14,000, which is considerably less than 2002's $4,314,000. The company's net loss for the year was $5,577,000 while in 2002 it achieved a net income of $1,954,000. ISWI's president, Bernard Albanese, stated that the groundwork the company laid in 2002 is not manifest in the financial figures, but he believes ISWI "has positioned itself for an effective roll-out of the SportXction system to a significant number of users through multiple distribution channels in 2004."
Interactive Systems Worldwide Inc. - 2003 Results