Sportingbet Plc Preliminary Results for the 12 Months Ended 31 July 2005

Wednesday, October 12th, 2005

Sportingbet Plc (LSE: SBT), a leading online sports betting and gaming group, announces its results for the 12 months ended 31 July 2005. In 2004, the audited results covered a 16 month period from 1 April 2003 to 31 July 2004. Unaudited figures for the 12 months ended 31 July 2004 have been provided for comparative purposes.

Financial Highlights - 12 months ended 31 July 2005

• Turnover of £1,526.2m versus £1,177.6m last year (2004 16 months:
£1,422.8m)

• Gross margin of £175.8m versus £93.9m last year (2004 16 months:
£108.8m)

• Operating profit, before goodwill and exceptional items, of £60.5m versus £20.8m last year (2004 16 months: £21.7m):
- Paradise Poker contributed £28.4m to operating profit (2004: Nil)
- Excluding Paradise Poker, operating profit up 54.3% to £32.1m

• Profit before tax of £40.8m versus £8.3m last year (2004 16 months: £5.4m)

• Basic earnings per share, pre goodwill and exceptional items, of 18.6p versus 9.5p last year (2004 16 months: 10.0p)

• Diluted earnings per share, pre goodwill and exceptional items, of 13.9p versus 6.5p last year (2004 16 months: 6.8p)

• Cash generation from operating activities of £71.7m (2004 16 months: £24.3m)

• Proposed maiden dividend of 1.0p per share (2004: Nil)

Business Highlights - 12 months ended 31 July 2005

• Registered customers up 1.5m (123.1%) to 2.7m (2004: 1.2m)

• Average cost of acquisition of an active real money customer of £137 (2004: £141)

• Number of sports and gaming bets up 50.6% to 399.9m (2004: 265.5m)

• Equivalent of 13 sports and gaming bets per second (2004: 8 bets per second)

• Equivalent of 13 games of poker per second (pro forma 2004: 8 games per second)

• Average daily Paradise Poker rake up 88.8% to $283,824 (2004: $150,277)

• Costs reduced by 14.4% to £0.66 per £1 of standard gross profit (2004: £0.77)

Commenting on today's announcement, Peter Dicks, Chairman, said:

"We are delighted with the performance of the business this year. Our strategy of providing customers with a wide range of safe, online gambling opportunities via localised websites under one virtual roof is delivering real shareholder returns. This past year has been made particularly special by the realisation of this vision for Sportingbet.

During the 12 months ended 31 July 2005, through a combination of strong organic growth and acquisition, the scale of our operations has increased materially. We achieved record profits and at the same time launched a number of new products and entered several new markets. Our European business alone is now spread over 26. We have significantly strengthened our management team during the year. With diluted earnings per share increasing 114% over last year to 13.9 pence a share, we are pleased to recommend a maiden dividend of 1.0 pence per share.

The benefits of the increased scale of our business across a multi-product "one-stop-shop" environment have been clearly demonstrated. I am also pleased to report that we have also experienced strong organic growth during the beginning of the new financial year and consequently continue to view the future with confidence."

Commenting on the results, Nigel Payne, Chief Executive, said:

"I am delighted to report a record performance for Sportingbet this year, a period in which the scale of the Group's operations has increased significantly. We now have over 2.7m registered customers, who placed 400m sports and gaming bets in the year, up 51%, and generated an 89% increase in daily poker rake.

We are particularly pleased with the Group's customer dynamics, which have remained in line with previous years despite the increase in the scale of the business. Important indicators such as customer acquisition cost, bet size, bet frequency and attrition, have either remained in line with last year or in some cases improved. The stability of these indicators demonstrates the power of Sportingbet's multi-product, global offering and our ability to drive organic growth cost efficiently, without compromising the quality of customer attained.

At the start of the new financial year this trend has continued. Organic growth is strong and customer acquisition costs are stable. New customer signups, sports bets and poker games are all at record levels."

For further information please contact:

Sportingbet Plc

Nigel Payne
Chief Executive
Tel: 020 7251 7273

Andrew McIver
Finance Director
Tel: 020 7251 7280

Smithfield (media)
George Hudson
Tel: 020 7903 0669
or 07803603130

IR Focus
(analysts/investors)
Neville Harris
Tel: 020 7378 7033
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