Sportingbet PLC
05 August 2005
Sportingbet Plc
__________________________________________________________________________
Settlement of Australian litigation
Sportingbet Plc (LSE: SBT), one of the world's leading online betting and gaming
groups, is pleased to announce the settlement of its outstanding Australian
litigation.
Sportingbet acquired its Australian facing business, the Number One Betting
Shop, in 2001. Subsequent to the acquisition, a customer was charged with
embezzling funds from his employer and using such funds for personal use,
including gambling. In 2003, his employer successfully recovered through the
Australian courts the element of funds that were used for gambling purposes with
Sportingbet Australia during the period that Sportingbet Australia had operated
onshore. Sportingbet duly paid over this sum of AUS$2.68m to the employer and
provided for this cost as an exceptional charge in its accounts for the year
ended 31 March 2003. This ruling was appealed by Sportingbet.
In a separate but related additional action, the employer sought to recover a
maximum, further sum of AUS$8.5m allegedly representing the element of funds
that were used for gambling purposes with Sportingbet Australia by the same
employee during the period that Sportingbet Australia had operated offshore in
Vanuatu. This action was contested by Sportingbet.
As a result of these actions being unresolved at the time of completion of the
Number One Betting Shop earnout in 2003, Sportingbet deducted from the earnout
settlement the sum of AUS$2,077,473 in cash and did not issue 6,692,967 new,
ordinary shares pending the outcome of the litigation.
Agreement has now been reached between all parties whereby all proceedings in
both actions have been terminated. In this agreement, Sportingbet has recovered
the original AUS$2.68m paid over in 2003 and has also received reimbursement for
the majority of its costs incurred. As a result of this successful outcome, the
cash and new, ordinary shares withheld from the earnout settlement in 2003 will
now be paid over to the vendors of the Number One Betting Shop.
Accordingly, application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the
6,692,967 new, ordinary shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. Following the
issue of these shares, Sportingbet's issued share capital will be 337,149,694
shares of 0.1p each and, on a fully-diluted basis, 440,284,491 shares of 0.1p
each.
For further information please contact:
Sportingbet Plc
Nigel Payne, Chief Executive Tel: 07780 674389
Smithfield (media) Tel: 020 7903 0669
George Hudson Tel: 07803 603 130
IR Focus (analysts/investors)
Neville Harris Tel: 020 7378 7033
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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