Whether it's idle City brokers or housewives who like a punt, gaming house 888 Holdings is attracting new custom in droves.

The company behind brands such as Pacific Poker and Betmate today said sales in the last three months hit $61 million, a rise of 7% on the first quarter of the year.

888 is increasingly looking to its ­business-to-business arm for growth – selling its software and customer ­support expertise to other firms.

Recently it signed a deal with the “Racing Post”, the horse racing newspaper which was seeking to expand into poker.

888 says it has a “healthy” pipeline of similar deals which will have a “positive impact” on revenue in the near future.

Online betting has been one of the few areas of the economy that seems to have been immune from the recession. Chief executive Gigi Levy said the next few months could be slower, but remains confident: “We enter the seasonably quieter summer period with delivery of our strategy on track, and we remain committed to investing in the business in spite of the macro-economic environment,” he said.

Levy wants to embark on a share buyback programme and is seeking permission from shareholders.

888 shares moved up more than 2% to 94.5p this morning.

Evolution Securities repeated its “buy” recommendation on the stock, which it predicts could go to 192p.

The company is expected to lose out in a bidding battle with rival PartyGaming for Foxybingo.com owner, Cashcade.

“We believe the business has stabilised and that the risk from Cashcade is material but already in the price,” says Evolution analyst Ivor Jones.