The Board of Sportingbet has today announced the acquisition of Antigua-based ISC Entertainment’s business. ISC owns and provides marketing services for some US gaming websites and is currently a white label partner of Sportingbet. Under the agreement the newly acquired sites will be used by Sportingbet to drive traffic to its own Paradise Poker, the third largest online poker site in the world. The initial cost of the agreement is US$33 million, half cash and half for over 2.75 million ordinary shares valued at US$16.5 million.

In its trading update Sportingbet reports good progress in the seasonally quiet final quarter of the year to 31July 2005. Growth in customer numbers has been good and profits have exceeded management’s expectations. The poker sites are benefiting from the fashion for playing poker online as well as good results from a recently introduced shared purse. The company predicts an operating profit, before goodwill amortisation, in the region of US$107 million.

Commenting on today's announcement, Nigel Payne, Chief Executive of Sportingbet, said: “We are pleased that Sportingbet continues to perform strongly. The global reach, the scalability of the business model and the diversified product offering are all working to provide solid organic growth in our business. ISC is a high quality business and the acquisition is a strong addition to our existing US-facing brands. With almost no integration required and solid organic growth prospects, we look forward to developing ISC's brands within our industry leading portfolio."

Sportingbet was founded in 1998 and at present is valued at over US$2 billion on the London Stock Exchange. A recent comprehensive survey has placed the company as the number one worldwide in the industry for the second year running. For scale, reach, influence and diversity Sportingbet cannot be beaten, winning all the categories in the survey. (E-08.02.05)

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