Operating Profits Up For Sportech

Sportech, the London-based operator of The New Football Pools, has released its financial results for 2008 showing a 20 percent increase in gross win revenues to £71.8 million.

The leading gaming business announced early last month that its full-year results would be in line with expectations after ‘robust’ trading over the final half of the year.

Over the last twelve months, Sportech has relaunched The New Football Pools business with new and enhanced products, private leagues and a community-based football predictor website. This has seen it report a 20 percent rise in adjusted operating profits to £22.6 million with adjusted profits before tax increasing 39 percent to £16.8 million.

It stated that it had committed banking facilities in place until 2017 but reported that retained profits dropped 37 percent to £5.1 million after a year of significant exceptional costs. However, its net bank debt was reduced by £3.3 million to £83.2 million while its debt to earnings ratio has dropped over the past three years from 5.3 times to 3.5 times with further reductions expected.

'Last year was another year of major transformation in delivering Sportech's turnaround strategy with significant investment and management time being devoted to upgrading and modernising the group's products, technology and routes to market,” said Ian Penrose, Chief Executive Officer for Sportech.

“The result has been a vastly improved offering. As well as retaining our existing players and re-engaging with former customers, our new distribution channels and strategic marketing partnerships have enabled us to target new and younger players.

“With many of the challenging immediate operational and financial initiatives now completed, Sportech, as a high-volume, small-value-ticket gaming business, enters 2009 in a significantly stronger position to withstand the economic downturn.'