Pre-Tax Profits Up For 888.Com With Help From Their Online Bingo Game
Written by Tom   
Monday, 10 September 2007
888.com is a Gibraltar based gambling company that has just reported a 300% increase in earnings for the first half of 2007. Their pre-tax profits totaled $19 million as compared with $5 million for the comparable period last year.

888.com is having a good year despite the loss of its U.S. market due to the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006, which eventually forced the company to leave the lucrative U.S. market.  The company has shifted its emphasis to different markets and is recovering from the loss of its U.S. market which represented more than half of its revenues and profits.

The company offers online poker, online bingo, online casino, and backgammon games in its unified software.  It has been entering into various deals outside of the U.S. to overcome the losses from the UIGEA including the sponsoring of poker events in snooker halls in the UK and a new partnership with a major Latin American gaming company, Tower Torneos, which is expected to boost both poker and bingo, since South American players will be playing when most European players are offline.

The Gibraltar based company has also been successful in securing a betting license in Italy and will be offering sport betting and looking to move into sports betting in other markets.

888.com is still solving its legal problems with the authorities in the United States since they continued to accept bets from U.S. players after the UIGEA went into effect.  Since 888.com is small compared to Party Gaming, they do not feel that they are a priority on the Justice Department list but expect to negotiate an acceptable deal with the U.S. authorities. In the meantime, they are looking forward to continued growth in the second half of 2007.