Online sports betting, casino, and gaming group, Sportingbet Plc, announced its first quarter results for the three months ended Oct. 31, 2008.
The generated poker rake for that period in the European region is £5.1m before bonus deductions. That figure is down 7.3 percent year on year.
Amounts wagered for the quarter were £364.9m, a good improvement on those reported for the first quarter of 2007 — £290.9m, with net gaming revenue (NGR) up from £30.4m in 2007, to £38.9m in 2008.
Poker however, only contributed £4.4m to both amounts wagered and NGR — It now accounts for a mere 12 percent of the company’s NGR. It reportedly “continues to struggle in the highly competitive European landscape resulting in NGR down four percent year on year.”
Poker is said to remain difficult due to the competitive nature of the environment, particularly because of large U.S. poker companies targeting European customers.
The report noted, “Whilst sports betting has historically shown itself to be ‘recession hardy’, no industry is ‘recession proof’. Unfortunately, there is also no empirical data with regard to the online casino and poker industry to estimate what the impact of an economic downturn may or may not be on these products.”
