PARTYGAMING

Treborbob - I agree that the logged on numbers are relevant as you can assume that a fairly constant number are real money. Therefore an increase in logged on players would represent an increase in rake, however your statistics have no comparables. ie Wouldn't it be better to say 22,000 players at 11.15am which is 12% up on the exact time a month ago? I think Aerotus was compiling data to this effect.

InAfrica - 3 issues that postponed the betfair float are 1) Dikshit Tuesday, 2) Possible private equity sale instead 3) Unresolved tax issue on profits.

When I first invested in SBT, advfn held a shareholder forum with the CEO, Nigel Payne. Betting exchanges were discussed and interestingly he revealed that sportingbet had their own exchange which they had held back from launch because of the tax issue. He also explained that they used exchanges themselves to hedge their book. The success of betfair is infact a large part down to corporate customers. I basically cooled on the idea of investing in betfair if it floated ( at a then touted 30x earnings) because it faced a double edged sword. If Gordon Brown decided to treat winnings as taxable profits then the stock would be in freefall. If he decided not to, then players such as sportingbet could launch their own exchanges and rather than using betfair could now use their existing exchanges with the benefit of instant liquidity from their own books.