British online gaming firm Sportingbet is looking forward to a boost in turnover from this year’s soccer World Cup after reporting a 7 percent rise in second-quarter profit.
“It will help the turnover but I’ll be surprised if the profit gets a particular boost,” chief executive Andrew McIver said.
“Bookmakers don’t tend to make a lot of money on things like the World Cup because there’s not many teams and the predictable ones tend to be there at the end,” he said.
Sportingbet, which gets almost 90 percent of its bets from Europe, said it was pleased the second quarter ended Jan. 31 came in line with market expectations, despite the recessionary backdrop.
The firm reported adjusted operating profit of £11.2 million (US$16.7 million) and saw net gaming revenue rise 22.3 percent to £52.6 million.
However, margins dropped to 8.2 percent last month from the group’s target of about 10 percent after a run of soccer results went against the firm despite more bets being placed.
“It was really down to more favorites winning in European football [soccer],” McIver said, adding that 65 percent of all the bets takes in Europe are on soccer, with the percentage increasing every year.
McIver said the firm had yet to reach a settlement with the US Department of Justice over a resolution regarding its previous activities in the country.
“We suspect based on the resolution they had with PartyGaming that it will be some sort of financial penalty, but certainly haven’t discussed quantum or timing,” he said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
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