Betbrokers, the UK’s first retail and wholesale brokerage and clearing house for the sports betting industry, shed 27 per cent of its already lowly market value today on news of some troublesome trading woes.

In an update, the AIM-listed company warned it has had to turn away business over the past few months due to a lack of funds in its clearing house account. As a result, the company has been turning down ‘the majority’ of bets, forcing the average deal size for May down to £424 from £1,370 the previous year. Though the company recently raised £495,000 (through the issue of ten per cent secured loan notes due 2013), this has proved insufficient to stem the tide.

Despite cutting back on marketing spend and reducing its headcount, the resultant decline in trading has forced Betbrokers to pare back forecasts for December 2008. Whilst annual sales will now disappoint, chairman and chief executive Wayne Lochner still expects the company, which reported losses of £2.5 million on £2.8 million for 2007, to be profitable and cash-flow generative for the year. He insists the number of transactions and trading volumes have increased compared to last year, and reported a good performance from US subsidiary Winning Edge.

Debuting on AIM at a placing price of 15p, shares in Betbrokers surrendered 0.18p to finish at a lowly 0.48p today, valuing the entire business at £1.51 million.

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