Gran Scala

Turkey, Greece, Spain and Italy gave Sportingbet strong betting flows in sports such as football, tennis and basketball, producing a net gaming revenue of £14.9m from Europe, compared with £12.6m for the same period last year.

Sports betting customer numbers in Europe rose 7 per cent and the amount of bets were up 16 per cent.

Sportingbet has spent much of the past 12 months restructuring around the European market after abandoning its lucrative US market in the face of the regulatory clampdown last October and writing off much of the value of its Paradise Poker business.

Andrew McIver, chief executive, said that the second quarter had started well and that in the year ahead the company would focus on improved customer recruitment and retention, strengthening its retail offering and improving its website.

“We will carry on focusing on sports, but we need to take whatever products we have got and just make a better effort with it,” he said.

Sportingbet did better than expected out of Australia, where several horse race meetings were cancelled because of equine flu. Sports betting customers were up 31 per cent.

The overall amount wagered was £290.9m (£260.7m) and net gaming revenue was £30.4m, down from £32.5m for the same period last year due to the steep fall in poker rake arising from the drop in liquidity in the post-US period.

The pre-tax loss was £1.7m, compared with a £240.9m loss in the first quarter of 2006 – largely because of the cost of withdrawing from the US. Losses per share narrowed to 0.4p, against 57.1p. The shares fell 1¾p to 53¾p.