Anyone holding these? Evil K drove the price right down and now they seem to be recovering---are they worth considering now they seem to have sorted out their finances?

When BWIN were thinking of taking over SBT, Andy McIver said that if the company had been worth 80p a share then that is what he would have expected the sp to reach. It didn't & it wasn't! Hence approx 60p a share was what he was asking. IMO that hasn't yet changed.

Just an extract from today's RNS, which may hopefully stimulate interest in the gaming sector again:

"Dresdner Kleinwort says profitable European online sports betting operations, particularly without a land-based presence, 'remain few and far between'.

As such, it believes Sportingbet could again prove an 'attractive bid option' in the near future despite the breakdown in the Bwin talks.

Dresdner Kleinwort added that the company has already demonstrated the profitability of its remaining non-US business."

Four trades of 6 million shares each just gone through, yet little effect on the sp.

Two director buys today @41p totalling 150,000 shares, plus total day's trades of 11.2 million shares.
I wonder if McGiver still values the company at around 60p per share?

"Sportingbet Plc will be announcing second quarter results for the three months
and cumulative results for the six months ended 31 January 2008 on Tuesday, 4
March 2008. There will be a presentation for analysts and investors at 09.30 at
Sportingbet's offices, 45 Moorfields, London EC2Y 9AE."

There seems to be a bit more interest now in all of the gaming stocks, particularly SBT & 888. Perhaps, as suggested in Shares mag recently, these stocks are unlikely to suffer in the event of a recession, as gamblers will continue regardless.

"LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Shares in Sportingbet PLC pushed higher in midafternoon trade bolstered by rumours the online betting firm could be the recipient of a 70 pence a share bid as early as next week.

At 3.00 pm, Sportinbet shares were 4-14 pence higher at 45-3/4, while the FTSE Small Cap index was down 1.6 points at 3,227.4.

Traders said no names had been mentioned regarding a potential bidder for the UK firm but suggested that Austrian gaming firm Bwin Interactive Entertainmnet AG could be looking to revive its takeover interest."

"VIENNA (Thomson Financial) - BWIN Interactive Entertainment AG does not want to comment on 'market rumours' it is mulling a new bid for its British peer Sportingbet PLC, a company spokesman told Thomson Financial News.

The Sunday Express newspaper reported this weekend that its undisclosed sources expect BWIN to place a bid of 70 pence a share for Sportingbet within the next few weeks.

BWIN tabled a 65 pence a share offer for Sportingbet in March 2006, but talks between the online gaming providers collapsed four months later.

At the time, BWIN attributed the collapse of the talks to the fact that regulatory and legal changes in a number of markets in which the companies operated made it impossible for them to agree on terms."

No bid news but sbt seem to be recovering strongly--I picked up a small number yesterday before 3rd qtr figures in early June.

I think 'strongly' is a little bit too bullish.

I wish it would though cause I'm sitting on a loss atm!

This may now cause a temporary drop in the sp:
"Pursuant to the terms of the acquisition agreement dated 1 March 2007 (the 'Agreement') between Maslin Properties Limited ('Maslin') and a Sportingbet subsidiary, the Company has today issued and allotted 5,882,353 Ordinary Shares of 0.1 pence each in the Company ('Ordinary Shares') to Maslin, as a result of further performance based targets being met.
Under the terms of the Agreement, Maslin is entitled to further issuances of Ordinary Shares up to 31 December 2008, should subsequent performance targets be met. The maximum remaining number of Ordinary Shares capable of being issued under the terms of the Agreement is a further 11.8 million Ordinary Shares.
The Ordinary Shares have been issued and have been subsequently placed by Daniel Stewart & Co with institutional investors at a price of 42.0p. Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for these Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading, which is expected to take place on 16 May 2008."

I think that news broke a day or so ago and I noticed the sp go down from 46.5p to 43p the previous day so I guess it is already in the price.

Lets hope so, but they will actually appear in the market on the 16th, so a further drop is possible, imo.

By strongly I mean 75% of their business was wiped out by the US fiasco and they have moved into other countries to make this back and are succeeding---lets hope the figures for 3rd qtr confirm this.

Harrycat. It should be like a rights issue eg the share price will adjust well before the shares start trading eg RBS's rights issue shares commence trading on the 9 June but the sp should fall tomorrow because that is the day the Nil paid start trading.

"The Board of Sportingbet has become aware that a number of detentions have been made by authorities in Turkey of people that have been related to Superbahis, the Group's Turkish facing business. In particular, the Board is aware that individuals related to Maslin Properties Limited, the Group's ex-marketing partner in the region, along with a number of their associates have been detained. Additionally, the detainees include 2 UK based Sportingbet employees who are Turkish nationals who had been in the country on vacation.

Sportingbet has received no formal clarification of events from the Turkish authorities, and until more information is received the Board is not in a position to comment on this situation further."

poor old sbt it's battered every way. I thought it was well on it's way to recovery and now this! I'm tempted to add though as it looks like the usual market over reaction!

Be careful, because BWIN may get cold feet over the possible takeover if there are legal wrangles within the business.

up 20%

Following heavy selling yesterday (23m shares traded). Looks like a bit of buying in the bounce.

No. PRTY up 16% at one point, SBT 20% so there are obviously rumours of consolidation in the sector.