Sportingbet Will Write Off Software  

Sportingbet (SBT.L: Quote, Profile , Research) said on Friday it would move players from its Paradise Poker Web site onto a software platform run by Sweden's Boss Media (BSS.ST: Quote, Profile , Research), leading to a 55 million pounds software write-off.

The two gaming groups have struck a three-year casino and poker contract, which will improve Sportingbet's yields from its Paradise Poker players and create costs savings.

Like all London-listed online gaming groups, Sportingbet was hit when the United States unexpectedly banned Internet gambling in October.

It sold its U.S. operations for $1 just hours ahead of the ban, and saw over 1 billion pounds wiped of the value of its shares during the crackdown. It has since been cutting costs.

Sportingbet previously ran two online poker operations, with about 6,500 players on Paradise Poker and about 6,500 on the Boss platform.

But yields were about 60 percent higher from the players on Boss, who could compete against other companies' customers who shared the Boss platform.

"The combination of the two poker businesses will provide some cost savings for the group," said Sportingbet. "However this may be offset by the loss of revenue that could occur as a result of migrating players from one platform to another."

"The redundancy of the group's Paradise Poker software will result in a further exceptional cost of approximately 55 million pounds."

Sportingbet's shares rose 0.7 percent to 35-3/4 pence by 9:33 a.m., valuing the group at around 155 million pounds.