Market Briefs - July 25-29, 2005

Coral Considers Float Options

Coral Eurobet, England's third largest bookmaker with 1,260 shops, has appointed investment bank Lehman Brothers as advisor to a potential float on the London Stock Exchange. The company could try to raise £800 million from a flotation that would value the business at £2 billion, including its £1.2 billion of debt. The timing of the deal will rely on market factors, but a float is expected by the end of the year. Coral made £145 million in operating profit on sales of £5.4 billion in 2004. A float would provide an out for private equity group Charterhouse, which purchased Coral three years ago for £860 million.

Trident Mulls Float

John O'Malia, CEO of Trident Gaming, which has recently acquired both North America-based betting exchange BetBug and European sports betting Web site Gamebookers.com, says his company is considering its options for a float within the next year that would value the firm at about £100 million. The company claims it is the only online gaming group that can legally operate in both the United States and Europe because BetBug's operations market software that enables bettors to deal directly with each another rather than with an unlicensed gambling provider.

Ubet2win Lists on AIM

British betting operator Ubet2win Plc (UBT.L), began trading on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange on Thursday. The company also recently signed a licensing deal with Betfair that will enable it to access the Betfair Application Progamming Interface (API) to manage its business more efficiently and profitably.

IGH Acquires Premiere Bet

Interactive Gaming Holdings Plc (IGH.L) has purchased London-based fixed-odds bookmaker Premier Bet Ltd. in a reverse takeover deal for a consideration of £1 million in shares and convertible loan notes. The purchase includes the Internet and telephone wagering operations and assets of Premier Bet, including the Web sites and customer databases of Premeirebet.com and PremierbetCasino.com. Premiere Bet launched in May 2002 and now has over 36,000 registered users. In 2004 Premiere Bet reported gross betting turnover of £24.7 million. The company does not take bets from U.S. citizens.

Reports Released

Empire Online Limited (EOL.L) has published its maiden interim results for the six months ended June 30, 2005, boasting an 87.5 percent increase in profit to US$87.5 million compared to the same period last year. Other highlights include a 97.2 percent increase in net gaming revenues to $49.7 million, a 75.7 percent in gross profit to $25.3 million, a 101 percent increase in the number of new acquired real-money players to 92,213, and a 222 percent increase in active player days for poker to 2,846,549. Poker revenue over the period improved by 180.6 percent to $39 million, while casino revenue dropped 6.1 percent to $10.7 million.

The company has also announced its purchase of online casino and bingo operator Club Dice and online poker operator Noble Poker, both of which use Playtech software, for a total of £40 million. The company says the acquisitions will enable it to enhance its product offering and achieve its objective of diversifying its technology providers.