Iv'e read many times that it's good to invest in shares which trade in areas that you have an interest. Well personally they dont come much better than this for me as I make a good second income from betting on football.

Having tracked UBT for a very long time I'm glad to say that I avoided that one as it just didn't seem to cut the mustard as they say. I could of course be proved wrong in time but I doubt it.

I really like this one and am currently building my stake in them as funds allow. It's another one I feel that is for the long term but I'm happy to invest this way.

Apologies I can't do the fancy graphs etc, but below gives a brief overview of the company.


Bookies' flotation proves a success

Mar 1 2007


By James Barton, The Journal


Bookmaker Neville Porter successfully floated on the stock exchange yesterday and unveiled ambitious plans to boost sales to 10m by the end of the year.

County Durham-based Neville Porter raised 865,000 by issuing 24.7% of its share capital yesterday and became the North-East's latest plc to float on the Alternative Investment Market. It has 39 pitches at 24 horse racing tracks across the UK and currently has 4m sales. But it is planning to use the extra cash to achieve its growth targets through launching an internet betting site, opening a call centre for telephone betting services and purchasing more on track betting pitches in Ireland.

Its owners, managing director Neville Porter and executive director Brian Morton, have already invested 1.2m in the business and retain a 64% stake in the Chester-le-Street firm.

David Soley, who with Mr Morton bought Hartlepool brewery Camerons in 2002, is non-executive chairman of the business and bought 100,000 of the shares a week before the float.

They intend to reinvest all the proceeds of the float into the business, have already opened the call centre at their headquarters and the internet site, which is currently under construction, is due to go live on or around March 18.


Mr Morton said: "We have bought two new pitches in Leopardstown and Galway [in Ireland] for about 400,000, invested 50,000 installing a new computer system for the call centre and recruited four dedicated staff who will take bets over the phone for sports including football, rugby, cricket as well as horse racing," he said.

Brisk trading saw the company's shares rise from the original 2p per share value to 2.6p by the end of trading yesterday. Mr Morton said: "It has taken us over 12 months to bring the business to market and after all the laborious due diligence we have had to go through we are delighted the shares were over subscribed. Especially as this went against the overall market trend yesterday which was slightly down on the start of the day." With the new call centre the bookies now employs 10 people and is looking to continue growing, particularly via the website.

Mr Porter, who founded the business in 1980, said: "We want to continue expanding through the call centre operation but having said that we really feel the main growth will come from the internet betting and we want to establish ourselves as a major player."

Northern Echo 13th April

Bookmaker looks odds-on to 'revolutionise' betting
BOOKMAKER Neville Porter is set to "revolutionise" the scale of the business after introducing technology that will allow it to run multiple pitches at some of the UK's leading racecourses.

The County Durham company is leading the field in using the software system, developed in Ireland, which allows it to operate several betting outlets at the same site, all of which are controlled by a central computer.

Managing director Neville Porter, who set up the Chester-le-Street firm in 1980, said the move could see turnover at its racecourse outlets rise by at least 66 per cent, and that the business was set to significantly outperform its 4m turnover target.

The system is already being used at Newcastle Racecourse, and was used at the recent Cheltenham meeting, which was Neville Porter's best year at the even. The company is now planning to install it at major courses including Newmarket and Haydock.

The AIM-listed business already operates 41 pitches at 26 UK sites - including two recently set up at Irish racecourses Leopardstown and Galway - a figure which could increase significantly.

Mr Porter said: "This is really revolutionary technology which allows us to have more than one pitch at a race course, and we are leading the field by using it.

"By adding a second stand, you may not do the same level of business as with the first, but it should see takings on the day increase by about 66 per cent. Really, this could revolutionise the business.

"At a meeting in Newcastle on March 31, we had three pitches in different areas, but all bets were going through one computer. From one computer, I can keep control of the odds and see the liability of the business.

"We are now looking to install it in every one of our courses, and are planning to start with Newmarket and Haydock, and then look at more from there."

Neville Porter, which launched its multi-sport internet betting site www.npbet.co.uk and its call centre earlier this week, has predicted that part of the business will generate 7m of income in its first year of operation.

It has been further boosted by deals with two leading odds comparison sites - www.easy odds.com and www.bestbet ting.com - which will display Neville Porter's odds alongside major bookmakers such as Ladbrokes, William Hill and Coral.

"That side of the business has only just started to get up and running, but we have been placed alongside the cream of the bookmakers by doing deals with those two sites, which could have a very significant impact on turnover," he said.

Just received my copy of BettingBusiness today and although I can't type the whole piece here are the snippets. I can only type with one finger. lol

Neville Porter has closed down it's website and telephone call centre, suspended it's shares and called in an insolvency expert to broker a Creditors Voluntary Agreement.

There is then a bit about what went wrong, then a bit of dripping from Neville that they took heavy losses from some clued up punters.

Perhaps someone should have pointed out this could have been prevented if they had kept their eye on the ball from the begining.

Ends with

Finance director Simon Walters said he hoped the CVA could be agreed shortly and that it would provide " an opportunity to give some value to the shareholders and creditors"