SCREEN DIGEST STUDY HAS ALL THE ANSWERS

(385) (2-September-2006)

The UK future of online gaming is bright, with revenues and customers doubling by 2010

The Screen Digest.com site reports that the companys recently completed online gambling study looked at 30 operators , including the global market leaders in key sectors such as sports betting, poker, gaming, exchange and spread betting.

Screen Digest claims the report includes 11 years of historical and forecast data for gross margin and active clients between 2000 to 2010 and detailed historical data for individual operators.

The indications are that strong growth in UK consumer spending on online gambling from 2000 was initially generated by predominantly 'hard core' gamblers. However future growth will be driven by more leisure oriented consumers from 2006 as demonstrated by the emergence and growth of simpler gambling formats targeting the mass market, in particular gaming and lotto.

For the first time gambling products are competing with other forms of mass entertainment for consumer attention and spending, the study found.

This report goes into extraordinary detail and will make for interesting reading for online gambling operators, investors in the industry, technology providers and sub-contractors as well as media companies looking to generate revenues from broadband services.

Screen Digest forecasts that UK consumer spending on online gambling will increase from GBP 660 million in 2005 to GBP 1.6 billion in 2010. At the same time the number of active UK clients will grow from 1.1 million in 2005 to 2.1 million in 2010.

For inclusion in the study participants had to be either based or listed in the UK, or target UK-based gamblers. An historic, cultural acceptance of gambling, a regulatory framework which directly confronts the issues unique to online gambling and the benefits of London as a global
financial centre have made the UK an essential base for many of the leading operators. Collectively, these operators constitute a large proportion of the total market for global online gambling, the study concluded.

2005 witnessed an explosion in industry consolidation with 32 transactions involving online gambling operators collectively worth over GBP billion - up from 9 deals worth GBP 200 million in 2004.

The survey also reviews the competitive forces driving corporate actitivity and analyses the key issues which will shape the industry to 2010.

Operators covered in the report included: