Online United Kingdom Betting Site Doing Well

During this time of failing companies, collapsing banks, doom and sorrow for the automobile industry and other enterprises, Betfair stands out as a miracle story. The United Kingdom’s giant online betting website, Betfair, showed them all this week that there is still hope and a light at the end of the tunnel. This year up to April 2009, its revenues have leaped to £303m or another 27 percent so far this year.

During the last three years Betfair’s revenues have actually doubled, and this is in spite of the fact that they invested heavily in expansion offshore. The online gaming site continues to grow in market share and to expand and build up its customer base, and all this without increasing debt.

Some of the more impressive figures released by Betfair reflecting a fueling of its rise in fortunes are a 20% increase in revenues from its sports division and a 31% growth in revenues from its games division. In addition to this it is showing increases in profits in its overseas operations, and it reports that nearly half of its revenues are now derived from its international business ventures. Among the new acquisitions achieved this year are the purchase in the U.S. of the TVG Network recently acquired for a sum of US$50 million.  In spite of these new acquisitions Betfair has still managed  to show a profit of £72m, up 29%. Its registered users are up 25% from last year at 652,000 registered users, and total deposits in online accounts came to some £240m.  It would appear that the online exchange model, which is being offered that allows people to function as either bookie or punter, is clearly a better value option than the high street operators offer. The company is pleased with this result in as much as it takes a commission either way.

Betfair started its operations less than ten years ago, and in that rather short period of time has done extremely well. About half of its investors are represented by a Japanese bank and a private equity group. At some time they are going to want to profit from their investment. This may explain rumors of a possible planned floatation of stock options to take place soon.

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