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888 Prove Online Gambling
Revenues On The Rise
The second largest online
gambling firm in the UK and one of
the largest in the world, 888 Holdings
Plc, has published its fourth quarter
earnings showing an increase of 55
percent over the previous year, which
the company has attributed to the
growing popularity of gambling online.
888 Holdings Plc, which is based
in the online gambling-friendly jurisdiction
of Gibraltar, owns top online poker
room, Pacific Poker, and leading online
casino, Casino-on-Net. The Internet
gambling operation reported fourth
quarter sales of $62.8 million for
2007, up from $40.5 million in 2006.
The company's annual sales gained
36 percent to reach $213 million,
helped by a 33 percent rise of $118
million in casino revenues. Revenues
from its online casino games increased
in its fourth quarter by 60 percent
to $35 million, while its online poker
revenue rose by 16 percent to $21.4
million.
888's online casino and poker average-spend-per-player
increased by 26 percent to $270.
The financial results bode very well
for the online gambling giant particularly
since last year was its first year
of trading without relying on the
once lucrative United States online
gambling market. After Congress passed
UIGEA in October 2006, online gambling
was effectively banned in the US.
However, like many other big online
gambling operations affected by the
US ban, 888 evolved its offerings
and target markets to stay amongst
the globe's online gambling market
leaders.
It achieved this by successfully
adding online sports betting to its
European gaming portfolio as well
as focusing its marketing efforts
on the lucrative Asian online gambling
sector.
In a statement released this week,
888 confirmed that this year's first
quarter 'started off very strongly'.
Said 888 CEO, Gigi Levy about the
results, 'We are very pleased with
our results which we think proves
that our strategy is working.'
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