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RobinFromIreland
01-18-2009, 08:12 PM
From The Racing Forum (http://www.theracingforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=75792), for your perusal:


Accounts to 30 April 2008 of the new Betfair holding company, Betfair Group Limited, today showing on public file (apologies if already reported elsewhere).

Extracts of potential interest:

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The Group has continued to build on the strategy put in place during the preceding 12 months as it continues its evolution from a predominantly UK based betting exchange to the leading legal global e-gaming site.
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• Full year revenue growth of 29% to £239.7m

• EBITDA up 32% to £42.3m

• Profit after tax up 54% to £29.Sm
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• Revenue from non-UK customers now accounts for 44% of total revenues (2007: 38%)

• Over 1.7m registered users (2007: 1.2m)
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• Continuing technological investment means the combined products now handle, on average, 5 million transactions a day. This year we matched more trades than every preceding year combined

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• Launched an Italian sports betting site under our Italian state issued licence

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........allowed shareholders to achieve liquidity for up to 10% of their shares......to summarise the Scheme, shareholders of TSEL elected to receive cash from BOL of £ 13.2005 per share in respect of the cancellation of 8,499.135 TSEL shares......

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Key Performance Indicators (GBP):

Total Group revenues - 239.7m (2007- 185.9m) +29%
International revenues - 105.4m (2007 - 72.3m) + 46%

Customer balances held on deposit - 227.6m (2007 - 173.7m) + 31%


.......Our industry is characterised by significant regulation and we continue to be proactive in our approach to it. We block all customer registrations from the US. China and Japan, and during the year also switched off all customers from Turkey. We also limit our marketing activity in certain other locations in line with our prudent regulatory risk policy, whilst continuing to work with regulators and governments.

Revenues from our Australian joint venture grew 22% this year, despite the Equine influenza outbreak that struck Australia. The resumption of a full racing programme. together with a planned increase in marketing activity following on from the successful court case brought against the Western Australian Government. should see revenue growth improve further in the coming year.

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The strategic investments undertaken during the year include:

• In November we launched our new Betfair Starting Price (BSP) product which took 30 man years to develop. This aims to attract the large amount of customers who want to place a bet without having to understand the complexities of the exchange. Backers and layers can choose to take the BSP, and the actual return price (the starting price) is calculated when the event begins. From a price comparison perspective, since launch on UK horse racing our average returned odds are some 30% higher than the existing industry SP.

• We have invested significantly in Tradefair during the year. This is our first application of Betfair's exchange platform outside the betting industry. Tradefair's vision is to apply the key assets of the Betfair technology, user base and operational expertise into the online retail financial derivatives market.

• The Betfair community remains vibrant, with ever increasing content added to our site. The sports category pages provide relevant betting-related sports stories, and Betfair radio, an online radio station, provides up-to-the-minute information on Betfair prices, as well as live commentary on all UK racing. The integration of the Timeform product with our UK racing site provides a one stop shop for quality form guides and an integrated betting platform. We now stream all UK horseracing pictures, together with thousands of other live sporting events, and our forum continues to be the home of lively and stimulating debate.

• The Betfair site continues to be one of the most popular and technically demanding web sites in the world. We regularly process 5 million transactions in a day, and settle them all in real time - to put this into context this is at least three times more than every European stock market combined. The directors believe that the continued investment in our back end technology is critical to the long term success of the Group.

• We invested £3.5m in a joint venture with Top Up TV, the UK's leading provider of freeview technology.This joint venture will target the interactive TV market.

• We continue to bring innovative new ideas to the market. The latest venture is a new game which brings together the skill of sports betting with the fun of a multi-player tournament. This product was launched in early May 2008 under the name Taikai.

• We have further invested in our Maltese operations which is central to our business strategy. We have over 150 staff members in place there, running our international business as well as our Poker and Games products.

• The 2005 Gambling Act came into force on I September 2007. As a UK licence holder, we can now advertise on television, which we have done with considerable success.

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The following expenses have been included in arriving at the Group profit before tax :

Gross Profits Tax - GBP 24.0 m (2007 - GBP 19.5m)
UK Horseracing Levy - GBP 6.88m (2007 GBP 5.89m)

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Other income:

Income from the management of customer balances - GBP 8.87m (2007 - GBP 5.69m)

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Employees and Directors:

The average number of persons employed by the Group (including directors) during the year, analysed by category, was as follows:

Corporate and administration; 2008 - 175 (2007 - 149)
Product development 2008 - 466 (2007 - 242)
Operations: 2008 - 323 (2007 - 430)
Sales and marketing 2008 - 177 (2007 - 85)

Total 2008 - 1,141 (2007 - 906)

At 30 April 2008 the Group had 1,237 employees (2007: 1.050).


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Figures include all sports available to bet on Betfair. The UK Horseracing Levy is the required contribution to the UK horseracing governing body based on gross profits from horseracing; Betfair contributed almost £7m (~$10m) to the levy in 2008.