Sportingbet.com romps home, Playboy bets on Ladbrokes

NEWS The UK online, offshore betting pioneer showed nine-month revenues of £217.8m and an operating profit of £458,000 after writing off all its marketing and acquisition charges. Ladbrokes' eGaming and Playboy.com are to combine in a Gibraltar-based site to allow gamblers outside the US to bet on US and world sporting events. PlayboySportsBook.com will have safeguards to prevent taking bets from US states and countries where betting is illegal. Nigel Payne, Sportingbet finance director, said: "I'm particularly pleased that we can show a profit after writing off all our costs, including acquisitions. In this business though, you don't buy companies, you acquire customers. "In the last nine months, we've proven that we have a model that works." Sportingbet currently has 50,000 customers in 103 countries. Only seven per cent of its gambling revenue comes from the UK. Rivals Ladbrokes and Coral are still struggling away from the gates. The most recent report from Ladbrokes owners Hilton said that the online operation was breaking even but had not started to recoup heavy set-up and marketing costs. Coral's most recent results say the same. The Playboy tie-up could be a breakthrough for Ladbrokes as Playboy.com takes 6.5 million hits a month from outside the US.