Market Briefs (Feb. 10-14, 2003)

BSkyB Reports Higher Operating Profits

British Sky Broadcasting plc (BSY) is announcing a 126 percent increase in operating profit for the six months ended Dec. 31, 2002. In addition, the company is reporting that operating profit before goodwill increased 126 percent to £158 million during the same period. Profit before tax and goodwill was £80 million. Chief executive Tony Ball said the company is confident about its performance for the remainder of the year.

"Double-digit revenue growth combined with tight control of costs has resulted in strong margin expansion driving significant and rapidly growing free cash flow," he said. "We are well on track to hit all of our targets and we look forward to the rest of the year with confidence."

Total revenue increased 14 percent to £1,511 million, and operating expenditures grew by 8 percent to £1,353 million. Operating profit before goodwill was up 12 percent to £158 million.

The U.K.-based company reports that in December its Sky Bet service launched with interactive football menus. Interactive revenues, which include gross betting revenue and revenue from Sky Active, totaled £91 million, no significant change from previous reports. Gross betting revenue alone fell to £43 million. The company reports that the decrease is part of its plan to replace most of its low-margin telephone-betting customers with interactive television betting customers, who tend to wager more.

The number of interactive television bets was up 160 percent from the previous year and revenue from interactive betting increase 104 percent. The company stated that interactive television betting is proving itself to be very profitable.

"ITV remains the fastest growing segment of betting revenues and now accounts for the majority of bets placed by volume," the company stated.

UNiTAB Net Profit Up Nearly 70 Percent

UNiTAB, a totalizator and fixed-odds sports betting operator in Australia, is reporting a 68.8 percent increase in net profit to AU$22 million for the first six months of the year. The company credits growth in Queensland and in Northern Territory race wagering as well as addition of the South Australian TAB. Wagering revenue increased by 44.8 percent.

"Race wagering revenue continued to improve in all jurisdictions, with the Northern Territory delivering growth in excess of 20 percent," the company said. "The Queensland race wagering business also benefited from good racing weather, robust pools and reduced competition from the mature gaming sector, providing off-course growth in excess of 7 percent."

UNiTAB expects sales to amount to more than AU $35 million this year. The group remains in merger discussions with Jupiters, which this week reported a 4.2 percent decrease in first-half revenue to AU $34.7 million.

AngelCiti Handles $5.9 million in January

AngelCiti Entertainment (OTCBB: AGLC) processed net handle of more than $5.9 million during January of this year, the company said last week. George Gutierez said the group's performance in January puts it on target achieve significant growth in the upcoming year.

"While this was a great start to the new year and represents almost a tripling of the company's business as compared to calendar year 2002, we feel that results will only continue to improve as the year moves along," he said. "We have an aggressive growth strategy in place for 2003 and believe that those results will begin to be more greatly reflected in the company's bottom line over the next four to six months."

AngelCiti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Worldwide Management and is based in Pembroke Pines, Fla. According to its Web site, it also has an office in Costa Rica. It has been in operation for the last eight months of 2002 and provides software to several Web sites, including vacationcasino.com, starbrightcasino.com, welcometoourcasino.com, quepasacasino.com and luckydogcasino.com.

Scientific Games Conference Call

Scientific Games Corp. (SGMS) will release its 2002 financials on Feb. 28. The company will host a 1 p.m. EST conference call on that day. To participate in the conference, call 877-407-8035 in the United States or 201-689-8035 internationally. The event will also be Webcast on the company's Web site. A recording of the call will be available until March 7. To access the recording, call (877) 660-6853 in the United States or (201)612-7415 internationally.

Reports

Canadian online gambling software maker CryptoLogic Inc. (CRYP) is reporting that its yearend 2002 financials are in line with both analysts' and management's expectations. Revenue for 2002 was $34.4 million, down from last year's revenue of $43.6 million. Net income was down as well, to $7.7 million before a special charge, from $18.1 million in 2001. Diluted earnings per share were also reduced, to 60 cents this year from $1.21 cents last year.