Is Canbet In Trouble?

September 4, 2008 (InfoPowa News) — Canbet, the online sportsbetting, poker and casino subsidiary of Australia's International All Sports Limited (IAS), has posted a negative pre-tax result of A$6.41 million, contributing to the lackluster performance of its parent group, which recorded a  pre-tax loss for the year of A$3.14 million.
 
"This result is deemed unacceptable by the IAS board and the group's overseas business units are being reviewed," the company said in a statement. "The results recorded by the international business units have negated the excellent result achieved by the Australian [facing] business."
 
Australian horse, harness and greyhound racing comprise nearly 80 percent of the turnover for IASBet.com and it reported earnings before tax for the year of A$10.29 million. This is up on the previous year's pre-tax result of A$6.55 million while wagering increased just over 21 percent to A$438.27 million. In addition, revenues from IASBet.com for the financial year increased over 25 percent to A$28.19 million with a margin of 6.43 percent.
 
"A win rate of 6.43 percent is an excellent result when compared to competitors and is attributable to a successful marketing drive for online recreational customers in conjunction with the promotion of higher yielding betting products," the statement emphasized.
 
IAS said that the UK-licensed CanBet.com operation failed to generate an 'acceptable margin' of revenues due to software malfunctions, inexperience in product management and a new client database dominated by professional players and arbitrages, resulting in no winning margin for the first half. In the second half, this margin only increased to one percent while the third quarter prospective win rate of three percent could not be maintained over the final quarter.
 
"This tardiness in moving out of a start-up phase mode is disturbing," concluded the statement.