Analyst Andy Lee of house broker Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein has upgraded his earnings estimates for Aim-listed on-line bookie Sportingbet.com following Monday's interim announcement, writes James Crux.

For the current year ending 31 March, Lee is expecting pre-tax profits before goodwill and exceptional items of £13.4 million, an upgrade from his previous £12.9 million estimate. He says Sportingbet.com (SBT) will make this on sales of £927 million and has raised his earnings estimate for the current year from 5.8p to 6p, fully diluted.

Investors pushed the shares ahead by 4.5p to 98p in early dealings today, putting the group on a prospective price/earnings ratio of 16.3, compared to the 13 average in the leisure sector. This figure should fall to 8.2 on earnings of 12p for 2003 and Lee expects sales of £1.2 billion in 2003, with pre-tax profits before exceptional items and goodwill coming in at £30.8 million.

On Monday, the on-line gambling play announced very strong interim figures to September, notwithstanding the recent US terrorist outrages. Sales leapt from £114.1 million to £293.2 million and pre-tax losses were trimmed from £4.2 million to £1.63 million.

Turnover was boosted by the acquisition of US-based internet sports bookie Sportsbook for £35.9 million. Sportsbook contributed two months' worth of trading and boosted the proportion of North American customers from 48 per cent at the end of June to 84 per cent.

11 September trimmed operating profits by £1.2 million because sport was postponed for nine days in the United States. But directors say that by the middle of October, US trading had recovered to levels higher than immediately before the World Trade Centre attack.

Sportingbet	AIM	£132.99m	28.00p	0.00p
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