means the value of Bet Direct has dropped by over half in just one year. It
will be interesting to keep an eye on the share price to see how the market
responds to this news.
32Red, exchanged contracts to sell the Betdirect brand, customer database
and certain assets of the business to Stan James for a total consideration
of £5.75m. 32 Red will continue to offer an integrated online sports betting
product to its customers. Discussions are reported underway in connection
with a white label online sports betting arrangement with Stan James.
Consideration for the purchase will be paid in installments: £575,000
deposit on exchange of contracts today; £4,675,000 on completion, which is
unconditional and is scheduled for 10 December 2007; and a further £500,000
after a 6 month period.
32 Red went on to report across the rest of its business active customers
grew to 75,911 (H1 2006: 44,539)
- Casino active players 10,818, up 13.2% on 2006
- Poker active players 10,662, up 7.3% on 2006
- Bet Direct active customers 54,431, up 18.0% on 6 months
Player yield
- Casino player yield £426, down 18.7% on 2006 as expected with customer growth
- Poker player yield £57, down 12.3% on 2006 as expected with customer growth
- Bet Direct customer yield £73
Cost per Acquisition (inclusive of affiliate costs)
- Casino & poker cost per acquisition £82 (2006: £93)
- Casino cost per acquisition £155 (2006: £160)
- Poker cost per acquisition £4 (2006: £31)
Ed Ware, CEO commented: 'The sale of the Betdirect brand allows us to
channel our marketing and management focus on the core 32Red brand, which
continues to offer the full complement of casino, poker and sportsbetting
products to its customers. 32Red will also add mobile telephone gaming
services and an integrated Bingo offering to its product range in the final
quarter of 2007. Whilst the recent UK legislative changes effective from 1
September 2007 allow greater access to the UK market, we have identified a
number of new territories into which we intend to market the 32Red brand.
Our Key Performance Indicators demonstrate encouraging trends in the
underlying business and we are confident, following the divestment of
Betdirect, we can continue to deliver shareholder value.'
