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Online gaming site’s earnings almost triple

Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2005 | 9:30 a.m.

Sportingbet Plc, a U.K. online betting business whose share price has doubled this year, said fourth-quarter profit almost tripled as the company's sports-betting activities gained customers and won more from bettors.

Operating profit for the year ended July 31 was at least 60.5 million pounds ($107 million) compared with 20.8 million pounds in the previous year, spokesman George Hudson said. Analysts were estimating earnings of 59.6 million pounds on that basis, he said.

Sportingbet, which in November doubled its size through the acquisition of Paradise Poker, is increasing advertising to draw more users. The business has more than 2.5 million users in 200 countries and said today it is buying ISC Entertainment Inc. for as much as $39 million to add sports-betting Web sites including mysportsbook.com and worldwidegamble.com.

"Strong trading continued in the seasonally quiet fourth quarter, driven by organic growth in customer numbers and solid margins across all divisions," said Andrew Lee, an analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, in a note to clients. Dresdner is the company's brokerage adviser and has a "buy" on the stock.

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