EveryMatrix will make the Miles Ahead software available to its 25 existing customers who include Centerbet, Chilli Poker and BetClick . They will also offer customers the chances to use Miles Ahead’s software on a standalone basis.

EveryMatrix chief executive Ebbe Groes said: “Miles Ahead has one of the strongest development teams we’ve met so far. Their games are fast, well designed, and with cool graphics. In particular this is a team with great experience and skills in mobile development. They fit in beautifully in our organization and we’re very proud to join forces with Miles Ahead and have reached a level of maturity that allows us to do transactions such as this.

“We’re now focusing on bringing these products to the market, using synergies in sales, marketing, operations, and support. We have also initiated new development projects aimed at the fast growing mobile gaming market, allowing us to package this together with the new OddsMatrix mobile sportsbook,” he added. “We’re very excited about this acquisition, it raises our game to yet another level after last year’s successful launch of GamMatrix and we’ll be moving fast in using the opportunities this brings us.”

EveryMatrix was founded in 2008 and is privately held, mainly by Ebbe Groes, who is also the majority shareholder in odds comparison service BetBrain, and Stian Hornsletten.

Rank had been expecting the refund but management estimated on 25 February that they would receive £65 million plus interest so they will have been delighted to get almost £10 million more than they had expected.

Shares in Rank shot up 16.5 pence to 146 pence on the news, a rise of 12.7 per cent.

HM Revenue and Customs are appealing against the VAT ruling, which was on interval bingo games, and Rank will have to pay back all the money if the case is reversed in the European courts.

Ladbrokes Bingo only saw a one per cent rise in their active player numbers in the three months from July to September 2010 but their player base increased losses by 11 per cent.

Ladbrokes Bingo operate on Virtue Fusion software and Ladbrokes have been pushing their bingo hard in recent weeks, with their Free Bingo product now having its own tab on the navigation of Ladbrokes’ home page. It is thought that the record £3.5 million progressive jackpot on the Clover Rollover slot will have also contributed to increased revenue as players chase a life changing payday for just a £1 stake.

Across Labrokes as a whole, the online part of the business saw a 17% growth in revenue and across the entire company net revenue was up 12 per cent and operating profit, excluding high rollers, was up 128%.

However the company acknowledged that the like-for-like comparisons were not difficult to out perform, given how dismal previous trading had been.

Richard Glynn, the recently appointed Ladbrokes chief executive, said: “Although bolstered by successful latter stages of the World Cup and an easy comparative period, the growth rates achieved in the third quarter give the Board confidence that the Group is on track to meet its full year expectations.

“Ladbrokes has a great brand and a strengthened management team determined to drive operational improvements going forward. Though much remains to be done, I am encouraged by the progress we are making across the Group and I look forward to updating the market in February 2011.”

As the whole group saw a seven per cent increase in revenue, the interactive arm of Rank Group, which runs Mecca Bingo online as well as G Casino and Blue Square experienced a 26 per cent revenue rise for the third quarter of this year, which ended October 3rd.

The huge increase in Rank Interactive revenue in the previous quarter was accounted for by a great deal of investment in marketing and the relaunch of the Blue Square sports betting site (which grew by over 30 per cent in the period.)

Mecca Bingo halls had more people coming to the venues for the first time in ten years during the past six months, but compared to the same period in previous years the numbers remained the same. Rank also announced that it plans to reopen Mecca Bingo halls in Dagenham and Southend-on-Sea later this Autumn.

All of the land based gaming operations from Rank Group, including Mecca Bingo, Grosvenor Casinos and Top Rank España saw revenue increase in the period, with the Spanish arm surprising many people with its one per cent rise in takings during a difficult economic period in Spain.

A statement from Rank Group read: ““We note that the Government is still considering changes to the regulation of remote gambling in Great Britain as well as the taxation of amusement machines. We have made it clear that we would support these measures so long as they are delivered within the context of a broader equalisation of regulatory and fiscal conditions for land-based operators.”

Bingo provided revenues of $23.5 million in the first six months of 2010, up from $5.1 million in the first six months of 2009. But since then 888 bought Wink Bingo and Posh Bingo, which provided $19 million of those revenues.

The rest of 888′s business was hit by declining poker revenues, which had fallen sharply during the World Cup, although the company did say there had been an upturn in August. Profits of $8.4 million for the first six months were down 44 per cent on the $14.9 million earned in the first half of 2009.

888 said it would scrap its dividend in order to conserve cash for acquisitions; it is widely thought that the online gaming market will see some major consolidations in the second half of 2010, following Party Gaming and Bwin’s merger.

Gigi Levy, 888′s chief executive, saidd: “Our business experienced a difficult first half against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment, with trading impacted by a number of factors including general online poker weakness, adverse F/X movements and, in relation to Poker and Casino in Q2, the FIFA World Cup. A cost reduction programme has been implemented to help mitigate against this impact, the benefit of which will be seen in H2. A reorganisation of the technology and product divisions and a re-focusing of certain aspects of the business is also underway to better position the business for the future.

“Despite the economic environment, we committed additional research and development spend to innovative new products and increased marketing spend, which has generated some increase in revenues and a rise in real money registered accounts. However, this important investment for future growth has impacted H1 EBITDA.

“Trading in August has been significantly stronger than in July, with a double digit daily revenue increase especially in casino and poker. Boosted by the release of the new platform, Poker has seen an increase of more than 15% in revenue in August.

“We will continue to innovate our B2C offering and attract and retain players to 888′s brands. Dragonfish also continues to win new contracts and industry accolades underlining the strength of its Total Gaming Services offer. Particular progress has been made in regulated markets, and notable deals have been signed in Italy and France.

“With full service operator capabilities, strong brand, technology and unique B2B platform, we remain confident in the underlying fundamentals of the business and believe that the move of 888, and the industry, to become a locally-regulated gaming entertainment operator presents significant opportunities for growth and M&A activity.

“In order to continue investing for future growth, and to support potential acquisitions, the board has decided not to declare an interim dividend at this time and finalise the full year dividend when the full year results are available.”

Shares in 888 remained unchanged at 37 pence in early trading, giving 888 a market capitalisation of £128 million, way down on the £830 million valuation it achieved in May 2006.

Ladbrokes Bingo saw revenue rise by 4.9 per cent to £6.4 million up to June 30th. Other companies with various gaming arms have seen a similar trend, with bingo performing strongly as other parts struggle to attract players and keep hold of them during a tough economic spell.

Although the number of players at Ladbrokes Bingo fell by 4 per cent due to reduced levels advertising, the fall was more than offset by 9% growth in customer yields resulting from product improvement and innovation.

As a company, Ladbrokes revenue in the first half of 2010 fell by 2.4 per cent to £492.1 million from £504.4 million during the first half of 2010.

Throughout 2010, operating costs have been monitored closely and savings made wherever possible, with a lower marketing and software spend being made as a result. It is surprising, then, that new player sign-ups to all of Ladbrokes e-gaming grew by 6.8 per cent.

The second quarter of 2010 also saw Bingo.com change software provider again, this time to the Unibet platform after a deal was struck for Unibet to acquire a 26 per cent stake in Bingo.com for $2.25 million.

The loss figure of $29,977 is a marked improvement on the $344,806 deficit posted in the first three months of this year and the $266,702 loss that Bingo.com had in the second quarter of last year.

The huge fall in revenue from $1.5 million in the same period last year to just under $370,000 in the past three months was mostly blamed on the loss of gaming activity as the company changed software provider to Unibet.

Tarrnie Williams, CEO of Bingo.com said, ” The second quarter of 2010 was an eventful quarter for Bingo.com. We secured an equity investment of $2,250,000 from Unibet thereby significantly strengthening the balance sheet and ensuring sufficient capital to meet our revised business plan for the next few years. In addition, Bingo.com sold two subsidiaries, no longer required for the revised business plan, for $250,000, recording a profit of $177,832 on their sale.”

Williams added, “We are pleased that our loss is considerably reduced but we will continue to suffer losses for the next few quarters until our revised business plan is fully operational.”

The future of Bingo.com is widely expected to be bright with the site not solely restricted to the UK online bingo market but being able to offer a bingo product worldwide thanks to the deal in place with Unibet.

In the six months to June 30th 2010 Party Bingo revenue was €25.8 million, up by over €24million from €1.2million in the same period of 2009, when Party Bingo was just entering the market.

The excellent bingo performance was also down to Party Gaming’s recent purchase of renowned bingo software provider Cashcade. This proactive step showed that Party Gaming are committed to bingo and making inroads in the U.K. online bingo market. Cashcade was acquired by Party Gaming in the final part of 2009 and their expertise has clearly paid off for the company.

Thanks in part to the vastly improved bingo performance, Party Gaming has seen its total revenue rise from €139.9million to €182.1million. Party Poker struggled to maintain its 2009 performance with revenue falling in the first half 0f 2010. Poker performance was blamed on the World Cup in South Africa meaning that less players were online.

The main star performer for Party Gaming was its casino operation which saw revenues rise by 23 per cent to €76.4million, contributing over one third of total revenues for the company in the first half of this year.

Jim Ryan, CEO of Party Gaming was pleased with overall performance, he said, “We delivered another robust financial performance in the first half and also made great progress in executing our strategy. While poker was impacted by the football World Cup and remained difficult from a competitive perspective, our other verticals continued to perform strongly with total revenue up 30 per cent.”

NetPlay TV has Bingo Stars and Challenge Jackpot programming on ITV, Virgin 1 and STV. They launched Bingo Stars on 27 May and recently introduced a way of playing the game – a type of quick play keno – by mobile phone.

The company said that takeup of the mobile gambling product had been lower than expected. In a trading statement they said: ” It is becoming clear that we need to be very flexible in our product outputs and, on 21 June, we altered our format and scheduling to trial an alternative format in our earlier segment. This product is a more akin to our proven interactive gaming formats.

“We have gained a vast amount of knowledge from our current successful and profitable media partnerships and we are using this knowledge to the full, both in terms of potential cost savings and customer playing habits. Early signs are more encouraging with customers depositing funds during the show as well as to the website the following day.”

But the company warned that revenues would take longer to collect because players would lose money over a greater time period: “The move from an instant play model to a more traditional game play, as well as increased first half costs, will have a material impact on our short term profit performance. As a result the Directors believe this will have a significant impact on the full year market expectations. The initial costs associated with producing and trialling new gaming formats are high, although as we amend the model to be more inline with our proven formats we are able to reduce costs significantly with immediate effect.

“The focus on developing new formats, moving technical platforms, migration offshore and improving our core offerings has been a major upheaval for the business; as a result costs have increased substantially in the short term. In altering the current format and scheduling as well driving more synergies between our brands we are able to strip costs out from the business with immediate effect, thus protecting cash and the Company’s balance sheet.

NetPlay TV has several online bingo brands, including Bingos.com, Bingos.co.uk, Bingo Friends and El Bingo.

It has been strongly rumoured that Party Gaming, owners of Party Bingo, Foxy Bingo and Cheeky Bingo, would merge with bwin to create the largest online gambling group in the world.

But Hannes Androsch, bwin’s largest single shareholder and chairman of the company’s supervisory board, had said that talks to merge the two companies have been abandoned. “In the end, the talks have not led to the desired outcome,” he told Austria’s Trend magazine.

Party Gaming bought Cashcade, the UK’s bingo bingo company, last July and the bingo industry, along with all online gambling companies, is expected to see plenty of mergers and acquisitions as companies build scale in the face of increased regulatory requirements across all European gambling markets.

Bwin, which has almost no presence in the bingo market, said they were in talks with a ‘competent’ American company who aim to take a 11 per cent stake in the online gambling company. The San Francisco-based investor is said to have been chosen for strategic reasons to help bwin enter the US market when it opens up for online gambling.

888 said that it had “revised its outlook for the remainder of the year and now expects profit to be significantly lower than previous market expectations”. Shares in the company plunged 20% in early trading, falling to 55.5 pence and valueing the company at less than £200 million.

But bingo, which includes wholly owned brands 888 Bingo, Wink Bingo and Posh Bingo and the software behind leading sites such as Foxy Bingo, Think Bingo, UK Bingo and Bingo Ireland, has managed to avoid what the company calls “a difficult trading environment”.

The company has been badly hit by a massive decline in the number of players on their online poker sites; real money ring game players dropped 18 per cent from January to May. The company said it believed the drop was a reflection of industry-wide declines in player numbers and was not particularly related to their poker brands.

It also said they expect that World Cup fever would contribute to fewer players on their poker network and an overall decline in online gambling during the soccer tournament. The weakness of the euro and sterling against the US dollar also contributed to a decline in company profitability.

The announcement will increase pressure on chief executive Gigi Levy who has seen shares in the Gibraltar-based group fall sharply since his appointment in January 2007. Analysts said that the company was now a ripe target for a takeover, citing Bwin and Ladbrokes as the most likely acquirers. Another leading analyst told Bingo News: “None of this should have been a big surprise to the market but we think Gigi is reducing expectations now so that the company is re-rated and the share price gains some upward momentum, rather than constantly drifting downward.”

888 said they believed that the online gaming industry would continue to consolidate and they were well placed financially to make acquisitions.

Carlton Bingo has 14 bingo halls, mainly in Scotland. Their main bingo hall is in Livingstone which has a fully licensed cafe-bar. They have an online presence with their Carlton Bingo website which is powered by Virtue Fusion software.

They received a £3.6 million VAT refund following a long legal battle fought by Mecca Bingo over the taxation status of interval bingo, the games played between the main bingo sessions in bingo halls. The company also made money by selling one of its bingo halls but also said that a reduction in interest payments on its debt and lower costs had helped increase profitability.

Managing director Peter Perrin has called on the new coalition government to tax bingo at 15 per cent, in line with other UK-based gambling operations. In the Cartlon Bingo accounts he said: “What most businesses want is certainty, fairness and consistency in fiscal treatment and at the present time we do not have this in our sector”.

Gross win in bingo, casino and games grew by 32% while bet volumes in the Paddy Power’s online sportsbook grew 39 per cent. Profits were slightly ahead of the company’s expectations.

Paddy Power Bingo suffered several years of neglect as part of The Games Network, which was powered by Parlay Entertainment software. Company insiders told Bingo News that since they switched to Virtue Fusion software, which also powers brands such as Crown Bingo, Ladbrokes Bingo, William Hill Bingo and Sky Bingo, their financial performance and player retention has increased markedly. Virtue Fusion was recently acquired by online gambling software giant Playtech.

The Chairman of Paddy Power plc, Nigel Northridge, Chairman of Paddy Power plc told the company’s Annual General Meeting: “2009 was a year of significant developments for Paddy Power. We grew our turnover and market share across all our channels and expanded internationally through successful acquisitions in Australia, continued shop openings in the UK and a B2B agreement in France.

“Turning to 2010, the highlights of the year to date have been a very strong revenue performance in online (total gross win (ex Australia) +32%) and good bet volume growth across all channels. Significant investment has contributed to this growth and we continue to invest to maintain our business momentum and strong competitive position. Following a run of adverse sporting results in 2009, I am also pleased to report that the Group’s sportsbook gross win percentages have returned to normal expectations in the year to date.”

Shares in Paddy Power were up 1.92 per cent in early trading at 26.50 euros.

Ladbrokes Bingo had seen a 10 per cent rise in customer sign ups and a 5 per cent increase in revenues, helping to offset a downturn in revenues in their poker and casino divisions.

The overall Ladbrokes performance was poor with net revenues declining 6 per cent and operating profit 3 per cent, before high roller revenues were taken into account. Over the counter revenue in Ladbrokes betting shops plunged 11 per cent while winnings from fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) in betting shops increased by 1 per cent. The company said that the heavy snow in the UK in January had badly affected the number of customers coming into their betting shops.

Revenues from the eGaming net division fell 2 per cent but operating profit were up 41 per cent on the back of better sports results and an improved in-running offering.

Richard Glynn, the newly appointed chief executive of Ladbrokes, said: “Although only a few weeks into my role as Chief Executive of Ladbrokes I am hugely enthused by the longer term opportunities available to the company and I am excited at the prospect of revitalising the Ladbrokes brand and re-energising the business.

“The economic environment remains challenging and the strength of UK consumer confidence post the election is difficult to gauge. However Group profitability year to date has been broadly in line with expectations. Debt levels have already fallen significantly this year reflecting the continued cash generation of the business and the benefit of the tax settlement.”

Ladbrokes shares fell 3 pence to 148 pence in morning trading.

Mecca Bingo halls struggled in January due to the hard winter throughout the U.K, the poor weather served to reduce numbers of people going out to play bingo.

Describing the early part of 2010 as “encouraging”,  a statement from Rank Group outlined their confidence in reaching its prospective targets for the full year and long-term growth.

As a whole the group saw like for like sales increase by four per cent in the 16 weeks to April 18th and a 10 per cent rise in total revenue.

Rank owns 103 bingo halls and 34 casinos all over Great Britain and has reinstated its dividend after a better than forecasted improvement in pre-tax profits.

Praesepe, which is listed on London’s AIM market, has bought six Beacon Bingo halls and 26 Showboat branded amusement arcades (also known as Adult Gaming Centres) for £5 million in cash and have taken on the £40 million of bank debt held by the company.

Brian Mattingley, the Executive Chairman of Beacon, will join the Praesepe Board as an Executive Director with a focus on business development. Mattingley has extensive experience in the gambling industry, having been at Gala Coral Group, Chief Executive of Ritz Bingo Ltd and a non-executive director of 888 Holdings plc since March 2006. Mattingley bought the six bingo clubs in April 2009, three from Riva Bingo and three from the private equity owners of Beacon Bingo who had bought the chain in 2006 for £80 million.

Beacon Entertainments generated turnover of £35.9m and operating profit before depreciation, amortisation and non-recurring costs of £5.4m in the 56 weeks ended 26 April 2009. Praesepe expect to make savings of around £2 million a year by integrating Beacon and Showboat into their existing chain of 60 amusement arcades.

Beacon Bingo operates on Virtue Fusion software using a slimmed down version of the platform as management believed that most online bingo software is too complicated for their real world players.

Nick Harding, CEO at Praesepe said: “I’m absolutely delighted at this latest acquisition, which provides us with an excellent platform for growth and consolidation. We are acquiring a well run business with strong market presence in both AGCs and bingo clubs including the Beacon Club in Cricklewood, widely regarded as one of the most prestigious in the UK. The successful integration of our acquisitions to date – including the flagship Crystal Rooms in London’s Leicester Square – give us the confidence that we will maximise the potential of these sites. When we completed our first acquisition in July 2008 we set out our strategy of creating a diversified low stake high volume gaming group largely through acquisitions. Four acquisitions on and I am pleased the market can see that we are continuing to fulfil the pledges we made.

“From a personal perspective it’s great to be renewing my association with the mainstream bingo sector and of course a business which was created by Jimmy Thomas. My first job was running a Showboat arcade and I managed the first Beacon bingo club which was in Hounslow. UK bingo has a market value of £1.7billion and the management team, which will be bolstered by the addition of Brian Mattingley, has some very exciting ideas and initiatives to build on and enhance its reputation as a superb entertainment proposition.”

He added: “This is the first gaming business to have been released by a clearing bank post the smoking ban. I think the deal represents a ‘win, win, win’ situation in that the bank has a proper repayment schedule, our gaming portfolio is much stronger and the Beacon Entertainments staff now have the career opportunities and security which come with being part of a plc. I am tremendously enthusiastic about integrating the business and developing the opportunities of joining our existing Micro Bingo clubs with Beacon, developing the Beacon Bingo online offer and in so doing moving ever closer to our ultimate goal of creating a leading European low stake high volume gaming group.”

Globalcom, which is part of 888′s Dragonfish business-to-business operations, said that they were delighted to have held on to the contract for Foxy Bingo, Think Bingo, Bingo Scotland and Cheeky Bingo. Cashcade also runs Foxy Zero Bingo and ITV Bingo and is easily Dragonfish’s biggest client, with some estimates suggesting they account for over 85% of the real money liquidity in Dragonfish’s bingo operations.

There were talks that the sites may have moved to different software after Cashcade was bought last July by Party Gaming for £95 million.

Gabi Campos, Managing Director of Dragonfish, said: “Our partnership with Cashcade has been enormously successful, and we have enjoyed seeing their brands such as Foxy Bingo, Cheeky Bingo and Think Bingo become the most identifiable and popular in the online bingo arena. I am delighted that they have chosen to extend the length of the contract, and we look forward to seeing their brands achieve further growth. Major standalone networks require software with sufficient flexibility to allow a variety of marketing campaigns that can be integrated into the back office, and Dragonfish can provide this.”

A source close to Cashcade told Bingo News: “This isn’t quite as big a deal as Dragonfish was making out as we were locked into them until June 2013 anyway so it’s effectively a small extension of our agreement. However it does show that Cashcade is happy with the software and also that they think it would be mad to alienate their customer base by switching to another provider.”

The source added: “The only realistic software they could move to is Party’s own software which powers Party Bingo. While it has improved in recent months it is a long way of getting to Globalcom of Virtue Fusion standard. There’s no way they are going to move to Virtue Fusion as Party doesn’t want to help Playtech grow as big as them so there aren’t that many options to play with.”

Bingo player numbers increased on the site in 2009 and it is expected, with Bingo.com’s new partnership with Unibet that player numbers will continue to rise and profits will start to come.

Bingo.com figures showed that total gaming revenue for the year ending December 31st 2009 was $5.63million, a five per cent increase on the 2008 figures of $5.37million.

Compare these encouraging figures to the three per cent increase in loss after tax from $1.15million in 2008 to $1.18million in 2009 and it is clear that there have been some problems for the online bingo site.

Bingo.com Ltd. Chief Executive Officer, Tarrnie Williams tried to explain the results, he said “Last year saw strong player traffic and gaming activity on Bingo.com, however, we continued to be negatively affected by currency fluctuations, particularly the fall in value of the United Kingdom Pound Sterling relative to the United States Dollar.”

He added, “The cost of operating a full service gaming operation is significant and, to combat this, we have chosen a new strategic direction by partnering with Unibet. This change in strategy will allow Bingo.com to significantly reduce its costs while simultaneously increasing the reach of its product offering through the introduction of multi-currency and multi-language features. We have found that providing bingo in our players’ language and currency increases depositing and play. The Bingo.com URL continues to draw high levels of traffic from many countries around the world and, with the growth of online bingo, we believe we are now well-positioned to become profitable.”

Mecca Bingo halls profits fell from £37.9million in 2008 to £32.3million last year. This is a fall of nearly 15 per cent and the reason behind it, according to  Rank Group, is the increased levels of taxation brought in by the government. The bingo hall’s performance was also adversely affected by the poor weather at the start and end of 2009.

Following this, the owners of Mecca Bingo, Rank Group PLC have called for a simplification of the gambling tax system in the UK and a system that will increase fairness for bingo halls, casinos and online gaming companies.

Ian Burke, Rank Group Chief Executive said, “At the moment the gaming and betting activities of UK consumers are subject to a patchwork quilt of taxation, without any apparent logic or relationship to social policy.” He continued his argument by adding, “It is particularly concerning that the current system of taxation seems to be undermining the aims of the Gambling Act by imposing the highest rates of duty on those venues which provide the greatest degree of supervision and have the lowest rates of underage gambling.”

Under current government legislation there are seven different tax regimes covering all online and offline gaming activities governed by the Gambling Act. All internet betting that is licenced offshore faces no taxation, UK based internet betting has a flat rate of 15 per cent for all types of gaming. Betting at bookmakers, bingo halls and casinos has many different rates.

The system proposed by Rank Group will mean that there is a 15 per cent rate on all gambling activities currently governed by the Gambling Act, including sports betting, poker, bingo, casino games, football pools and amusement machines.  This will not only simplify the current system hugely, it will also mean that UK companies providing online gaming will not be penalised by the fact that offshore domiciled companies providing similar gambling activities have no duty to pay.

It has been suggested that the UK Government could increase its tax takings from the gambling sector by imposing this new, simplified rate of duty.

As well as the purchase of Wink Bingo, major successes for 888 include the new £5,000,000 Pot of Gold Bingo promotion and the prominently advertised £8,888,888 Pirates Millionaire free spin slot machine. Both of these promotions were launched along with UK television advertising campaigns.

The acquisition of Wink Bingo, completed on 31 December has helped to increase new customer sign up to 888′s offerings by 52 per cent in the first five weeks of 2010. Another figure which will please board members of 888 Group is that average daily operating income has seen a surge at the beginning of this year too with an increase of over 18 per cent compared to the final three months of 2009. The contribution to this from Wink Bingo and 888 Ladies has been highlighted in 888 Holdings’ financial figures for 2009 which were published today.

Part of 888 Group’s upturn in fortunes can be attributed to the intensive re-branding of the group’s core products. With a new look and feel and unified logos, 888′s sub brands can all link into one offering. The new sites were launched as 888casino, 888poker, 888sport and 888bingo. As a part of this re-branding process 888′s bingo offering was updated too and has 17 new quick play games and five new bingo jackpots.

One of 888′s partners, Kamay Holdings Ltd. has selected Dragonfish as its bingo partner to launch Silk Bingo. Silk Bingo will join the Dragonfish bingo network alongside more than 60 other bingo brands.

Gigi Levy, CEO of 888 said, “Our positive momentum continues into 2010 and, supported by our successful Wink acquisition and our various business initiatives, we expect to grow the business further during the current year.”

Party’s sites include Foxy Bingo, Think Bingo, Cheeky Bingo, Bingo Scotland and the recently rebranded Party Bingo. Most of their bingo sites were acquired last summer when they took over Cashcade in a £95 million deal.

While total bingo revenue rose 25 per cent to £17.3 million in the three months to December 31, 2009, unique active players fell 4 per cent to 182,700 and new sign ups fell 23 per cent to 37,200. On average there were 18,800 players per day across all their sites and each player lost $10 (£6) per day. The fall is attributed to a far lower television presence for Foxy Bingo in the run up to Christmas.

While new real money player sign ups for bingo fell by nearly a quarter in the final three months of 2009 the real money sign ups in Party Gaming’s poker, casino and sports betting sites all showed an increase from the same period.

In the same report it was shown that Party Poker now has the largest liquidity pool of all non-US facing online poker sites.

Paul Leyland of Collins Stewart financial advisory group said, “improving poker liquidity is encouraging since it is crucial to the economics of the group. It is likely to become increasingly expensive to sustain. Our recommendation is sell shares.”

The improvement in sales at the end of last year means that Rank Groups earnings per share will be at the high end of estimates from industry analysts. The predictions indicated that Rank Group shares would have an adjusted earnings per share of between 6.8 pence to 8.1 pence.

Rank Group has said that it is expanding restaurant and bar areas and adding electronic gambling machines at bingo halls, and is seeking to attract more female customers with its “G Casino” brand conversions. In a statement earlier in the week Rank added that its online gambling sites attracted more bingo, casino and poker business.

“Grosvenor is proving far more resilient in a recession than first thought, and its G Casino rebranding is working”, said Nick Batram, an analyst with KBC Peel Hunt who has raised his recommendation to “buy” from “hold”.

Comparable sales grew 2 per cent in the 12 weeks ended December 27, which compares with 1 % for the year to that date, the company said in the statement. Total sales gained 6 per cent at the year-end period, compared with 3 % for the full year, the company said.

Rank said its cost control, with lower utility rates and stable employment expenses, plus lower financing costs helped boost 2009 earnings.

Between July and September 2009 Bingo.com lost $390,432 and total revenue fell 8% on a year-on-year basis and 5% on a quarter-on-quarter basis.

Chief executive Tarrnie Williams said that players were becoming more sophisticated and the recession had hit player values. “The effects of the economic downturn were evident in our third quarter results,” he said. “Online bingo players have become quite sophisticated and, with an increase in the number of similar product offerings, individual player values have contracted. In anticipation of this fact, we invested significant resources during the third quarter into a differentiated product that will soon be ready for release.

“The fourth quarter has started well and, when our new offering is live, we expect the business to be well positioned to return to growth and profitability.” Investors in the company may question how likely this is to happen, given that the company has reported a succession of quarterly losses for more than two years.

The company’s general and administrative costs for the three month period were $420,647, which seems remarkably high as that does not cover any player recruitment or marketing. The costs include salaries, premises costs for our office, legal and professional fees, and other general corporate and office expenses.

Playtech said that operational highlights included “launch of a new version of Playtech’s bingo product which will be further boosted by increased liquidity contributed by existing and new licensees” while William Hill said that “gaming activities, consisting of casino, poker, bingo and skill games, are performing well and in line with management expectations, delivering net revenue growth of 98% in Q3 (pro forma 12%).”

The two companies joined their online operations into one trading unit in October 2008. The division, headed by Henry Birch, has spent the last year working out how to integrate the two companies’ online gaming assets.

William Hill Bingo runs on Virtue Fusion software while Playtech have spent considerable time and money on developing their own bingo product.

Both Playtech and William Hill shares have remained stable in recent weeks, despite the run of poor sporting results which have hit trading margins. By contrast, Ladbrokes shares have plunged following their decision to have an emergency rights issue to raise another £250 million to reduce the company’s debt levels.

Cashcade owns Foxy Bingo, Cheeky Bingo, Think Bingo, Little Big Bingo and Bingo Scotland and also runs white label bingo sites, with the biggest client being Mirror Bingo.

In the three months to 30 September the bingo sites, including Party Bingo, recorded net revenues of $150,000 per day with 189,800 active players during the three month period and 48,400 new player sign ups. An average day saw 15,700 active players across their sites. During the three months each active player contributed $72.70 of revenue, or an average of $9.50 per day on each day they were active.

The company told shareholders: “Bingo revenue increased sharply to $13.8m [versus $2.0m for the same period in 2008] reflecting the inclusion of Cashcade for the first time. The integration of the business is progressing well and we are pleased with its performance to-date.”

Total revenue across Party Gaming rose 11% to $112.7 million but poker revenue dropped 8%, hit by lower staking players. Sports betting revenue increased 31% but remains a tiny part of Party’s overall business.

The company said October trading had been strong so far: “Q4 trading makes a strong start, in line with expectations, and the Board is confident about the Group’s full year prospects.”

Jim Ryan, CEO of Party Gaming, said: “Our performance in the seasonally weak third quarter was in line with our expectations, with revenue up 11% versus the previous quarter. Casino once again delivered a robust performance with solid growth in player yields.

We have increased the gross win margin in sports betting and remain focused on operational improvements to enhance the quality of our product and risk management tools. Poker remains challenging from a competitive standpoint, but we are encouraged by the increased player traffic during September and into October on the back of our new retention initiatives such as the enhanced loyalty programme, improved VIP offer and automated reactivation campaigns.

“Finally, the addition of Cashcade transformed our presence in the $1.5 billion online bingo market and was the driver behind the substantial increase in our bingo revenue.”

Gaming analysts are still uncertain about whether Party Gaming’s buy of Cashcade was a wise one. The highly respected Paul Leyland of Collins Stewart issued a further sell note on Party Gaming this morning with a target price of 120 pence, less than half the current trading price of 283 pence.

In his note he wrote that regulatory issues would remain a major concern for the company and concluded: “We see PartyGaming facing an increasingly difficult trading environment in terms of the cost of its growth, while we continue to be sceptical of the long-term value of Cashcade given the migration issues. Equally, we believe that the key themes of European regulatory change are likely to be highly challenging for Party to cope with. We therefore question the thesis of current earnings stability. From a US perspective, we see legal, regulatory and protectionist barriers as practically insurmountable for Party even in the unlikely event of a benignly worded enabling law. We reiterate SELL.”