Moderate third quarter from Unibet

Online gambling group, Unibet has released its third quarter results together with a summary of Year-to-date operations as follows:
Third Quarter 2010
– Gross Winnings Revenue amounted to GBP 31.0 million (Q3/2009: GBP 30.1 million).
– Profit from operations GBP 5.6 million (Q3/2009: GBP 8.9 million). Was negatively impacted by foreign exchange loss on operating items of GBP 1.5 million (positive impact of GBP 4.4 million).
– Profit before tax GBP 4.3 million (Q3/2009: GBP 3.5 million). In addition to the exchange loss on operating items referred to above, profit before tax for the third quarter of 2010 was negatively impacted by unrealised exchange losses on the loan of GBP 1.0 million (unrealised exchange loss of GBP 4.0 million on the bond).
– Profit after tax amounted to GBP 3.7 million (Q3/2009: 3.0 million).
– Operating cash flow before movements in working capital amounted to GBP 8.6 million (Q3/2009: 11.2 million).
– Number of active customers at the end of the quarter was 320,573 (Q3/2009: 329,721).
YTD – January to September 2010:
– Gross Winnings Revenue amounted to GBP 112.0 million (2009: GBP 96.3 million).
– Profit from operations amounted to GBP 24.6 million (2009: GBP 21.7 million).
– Profit before tax amounted to GBP 24.6 million (2009: GBP 20.1 million).
– Profit after tax for the period amounted to GBP 22.4 million (2009: GBP 18.3 million).
– Operating cash flow before movements in working capital amounted to GBP 32.5 million (2009: GBP 29.3 million).
Herick Tjärnström, CEO of Unibet, comments:
“A strong quarter for sports betting.  With many favourites losing, Unibet’s gross margin has been very favourable during the quarter. This has contributed to a strong overall result in what is usually a seasonally weak quarter.
“Our operating cash flow has shown a steady increase which has strengthened our balance sheet and since the end of the quarter we have repaid EUR 8 million of the bank facility ahead of schedule.
“For October 2010 the gross margin has been more normalised than 2009 but the casino activity is almost back at the revenue level from last year when we were active in the French market.
“We still remain cautious, however, about the outlook for the rest of 2010, as communicated in our first quarter report.
“Further to our comments on previous quarters, we have now formally established a new B2B business area called Kambi Sports Solutions, which provides sportsbook services both to Unibet and to third party customers”.

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