Gambling news from http://finance.news.com.au/
THE World Cup, which concluded rapturously for Italians in the early hours of yesterday, also delivered some joy to Australia's sports betting operators and retailers.
The world's largest sporting tournament allowed wagering operators to post improved results last month on the back of eager World Cup punters.
Online wagering group Centrebet said it had experienced a record month in June for new clients, attracting more than 5900 new customers.
The company, which is due to list on the Australian Stock Exchange tomorrow, reiterated its prospectus forecasts and said the growth was mainly as a result of World Cup promotional activity which was enhanced by the strong performance of the Socceroos.
Centrebet said the World Cup boost came on top of "ongoing strong monthly growth trends in its gaming operations in May and June".
Australia's largest sports betting operator Tabcorp also said it had experienced a "very strong month" in June, in part due to increased activity relating to the World Cup.
Betfair director Andrew Twaits said the company had seen a "significant increase" in both client acquisition and betting activity in recent months.
Betfair Australia, which is half-owned by the Packer family, received its licence to allow it to take domestic bets in February.
"We certainly saw an uplift during the World Cup, but not just last month, its been steadily growing," he said. "It's also been across the whole business and over a number of sporting events. But I think tournaments like this make people more aware of betting on sport."
Centrebet managing director Con Kafataris said the World Cup had delivered a host of new customers. However, the hype had not translated to a huge increase in overall betting turnover because other sporting events, such as European league soccer, had been postponed to stage the event.
"It was probably in line or a little bit above our estimates, but it was great for new customers which bodes well for converting those customers to long-term users of the service," he said.
Centrebet hopes to retain World Cup customers to its other sports wagering products and offshore gaming services such as online casino and poker.
Centrebet said it expects to meet its forecasts for the 2005-06 financial year.
In its prospectus, Centrebet forecast earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for 2005-06 of $11 million - an increase of 14.6 per cent on the previous year.
It also forecast adjusted, pro forma EBITDA of $16.9 million and a pro forma net profit of $11.6 million for 2006-07.
The company plans to raise $70 million through its initial public offering. The float closed oversubscribed last month with the company offloading 35.11 million shares at $2 per share.
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