Interactive gaming company NetPlay has gamblers appeal, having converted losses of £658,000 into profits of £35,000 pre-tax for the half to June.

The encouraging results followed a frenzy of acquisitions made by the company this year including: 7,600 mobile quiz subscribers from Rubberduck in March, Bingos.com in April, Sky Channel 848 (now Sky Channel 867) in May and the customer database of PitchGaming in May.

Martin Higginson, CEO and executive chairman of the group goes as far as describing the year as ‘transformational’ for the company, which now has a total active gaming customer base of 24,000 plus. In particular, he says the Bingos,com deal further strengthened the company’s position as market leader ‘in the converged multi-platform gaming arena’.

Higginson, ‘cognisant’ of the wider financial climate, said he was pleased with the overall growth in betting patterns and will continue to focus on cost savings across all areas of the business to deliver improved margins ‘where possible’. However, he admitted that the company does not intend to start paying dividends to shareholders while it continues its investment programme.

Forecasts in the market for 2008 point to a swing from losses to ‘adjusted’ pre-tax profits of £3.1m, giving earnings of 2.1p per share and placing NetPlay on a prospective p/e of 12.5 times. Differentiating itself in a crowded marketplace, focused on the exciting area of interactive TV and providing gaming products across all distribution channels, shares in NetPlay are worth a speculation.
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Netplay TV	AIM	£25.58m	21.25p	0.00p
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