February 4, 2009 (InfoPowa News) — The London-based owner of New Football Pools, Sportech, has issued a trading update that indicates the company is on track to meet market expectations for the full year 2008 after positive trading throughout the last half.
The update reveals that during the second half 2008 Sportech acquired 4TheGame.com, the oldest and one of the most respected soccer community websites in the U.K., and rebranded and relaunched The New Football Pools, formerly the Littlewoods and Vernons Football Pools businesses, leading to 'increased resilience in customer numbers'. In January another initiative saw Sportech team up with the major gambling group Ladbrokes to launch a selection of The New Football Pools products across the bookmaker's estate, with further distribution plans in hand for 2009.
“The initiatives undertaken during 2008 have resulted in a major improvement in the strategic positioning and performance of the business,” Sportech management said in the update. “The group continues to develop as a growth-oriented sports, leisure and gaming business. During the year significant investment and management time was devoted to upgrading the group's products, technology and routes to market.
"The majority of the Vernons Football Pools business has been successfully integrated ahead of schedule. We expect the final part of the integration, being the migration of customers onto the group's new Scientific Games-powered gaming platform, to be completed by the half year, which should bring further synergies.”
Sportech launched an additional bingo brand at GameOnBingo.com earlier this year and has announced that its full year results will be published on March 24 2009.
“The board consider Sportech's high-volume, small-value ticket characteristics put it in a strong position to weather the economic downturn as it has done on many occasions since the business was formed in 1923,” the update concludes.