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| 2006 £m |
2005 £m |
|
|---|---|---|
| Gaming | 22.9 | 13.1 |
| Sportsbook | 16.3 | 13.2 |
| Gross win/revenue | 39.2 | 26.3 |
| Operating profit | 7.8 | 1.0 |
In 2006 our interactive gaming business Blue Square increased revenue by 49% to £39.2m and grew operating profit by 680% to £7.8m. Active membership increased by 22.9% to more than 285,000 members.
This strong performance was driven largely by our strategy to develop our games and poker products and by the advances we have made in sportsbook risk management. Gross win from gaming grew by 74.8% to £22.9m while sportsbook rose by 23.5% on stronger margins to £16.3m. This was the first time that Blue Square’s gaming gross win had exceeded that of sportsbook.
During the year we launched a number of new gaming products, including meccabingo.com and grosvenorcasinos.com.
In sportsbook we developed Blue Square Prices, breaking with bookmaking tradition to offer customers an alternative to Show Prices on horse-racing. Between its launch in May and the end of the year, Blue Square was able to offer better last show odds than the official Starting Price on 38% of races covered (and the same odds on 44% of events).
The priorities for Blue Square in 2007 are to support the growth of our sportsbook and gaming products through targeted and imaginative marketing and to develop the on-line distribution of Rank’s retail gaming brands.
In January 2007 we launched the Blue Square-sponsored Grosvenor UK Poker Tour, the most significant series of poker tournaments yet seen in the UK. The tour comprises 11 regional poker tournaments and numerous 'satellite’ events, each hosted in a Grosvenor casino, and culminates in a grand final to be held at the Victoria Casino in London in December. Approximately 20% of players are expected to qualify for the tournaments by playing on-line at Blue Square Poker.
With each event being filmed for Channel 4 Television, the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour will become the first poker tournament to appear on terrestrial television, with 22 weekly screenings commencing in August.
This year we aim to extend the on-line distribution of our retail gaming brands, with marketing campaigns for meccabingo.com and grosvenorcasinos.com and the launch of grosvenorpoker.com. And we are exploring opportunities with Top Rank España to develop an on-line bingo product for the Spanish market.
To support the Blue Square sportsbook in 2007 we have taken sponsorship of the Greyhound Derby, the UK Darts Open and become the first full day sponsors at 'Glorious Goodwood’.
The Tour is in Town
The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour, sponsored by Blue Square, is the UK’s biggest poker tournament. The tour comprises 10 set-piece regional tournaments, and culminates in a grand final at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London in December 2007.
For more information, please visit the Blue Square website.