Sportingbet suffers on poker but football still scores

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Sportingbet today reported a 37% surge in underlying operating profits over the much of the last year as the amount of money bet jumped 18%, mainly on football but also tennis —another favourite punt of continental Europeans.

Sportingbet normally aims to make around 10 cents from every euro wagered but during the spring that figure for the group has fallen marginally as supporters of Barcelona filled their boots.

Not only did the Catalans walk off with the European Champions League beating Manchester United last week they walked Spain's La Liga by nine points against Real Madrid, losing half as many games during the season as their arch-rivals.

Spain is Sportingbet's largest football betting market and chief executive Andy McIver admitted the group's win margin there in recent months is down to just 5%.

"It is not so much that we wish Barcelona would fall apart. It's more a case of hoping that Real will get their act together," said McIver.

Sportingbet has ben previously hit by its ban from US and McIver today admitted gambling on casino games and poker has now fallen flat.

"Casino and poker is suffering from the recession," he said. "People used to come home and spend £20 on the casino or poker. Now, if they have £20 spend they have been more likely to put it on Barcelona."

McIver believes online casino gambling will come back as the recession ends but concedes that online poker — one of the booms of the 21st century — may have had its day. "Poker has the feel of an element of fad to it," he said.

For the nine months to the end of April, Sportingbet reported unerlying profits of £26 million from net winnings of £126 million after £1.2 billion of money was wagered.

With the football season ended, Sportingbet is hoping the season of the big tennis championships like Wimbledon will keep betting volumes strong.

Online gambling is being revolutionised by "in-running" betting where punters can wager on ever-changing odds on who will score the next goal. McIver said betting in running makes up more than 50% of Sportingbets wagers, a figure likely to rise to 75% within three years.

"It's all part of the I-want-it-now culture," he said.