Italian lottery and gaming operator Gruppo Lottomatica has released its financial results for last year showing a 50 percent increase in revenues to €657.3 million for the fourth quarter.

In addition, the giant revealed that full-year revenues increased 24 percent to €2.06 billion, a 17 percent organic growth over 2007, while earnings before tax grew over eight percent to €756 million.

Reported net income for the twelve months, after minorities, grew 27 percent to €94 million while Lottomatica reported that it was in a net financial position of €2.71 billion, which compares to €2.84 billion at the end of September and €2.25 billion at end of 2007.

Lottomatica’s business was helped tremendously by the performance of its sportsbetting and pool games in Italy, which more than tripled to €144.7 million in 2008 from €40.1 million a year earlier, while wagers increased from €321 million to €786 million year-on-year.

Lottomatica stated that its acquisition of the well-known Totosi brand saw it gain a leadership position in the Italian online sportsbetting market while increasing its overall market share in this segment from 14 percent to 19 percent. It also entered into the newly liberalised Italian skill games market in November by introducing an interactive online poker service, leveraging off the Boss Media platform operated by its GTech subsidiary.

“We are very pleased with our results in 2008,” said Lorenzo Pellicioli, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Lottomatica.

“We achieved the guidance provided to the market with significant growth in revenue and margins. We also demonstrated that through the group’s global presence in over 50 countries and across all gaming market segments we are able to generate income, pay dividends and maintain a solid financial structure to support our growth.”



Source: iGamingBusiness.com