There were early gains for Betbrokers on its AIM start today as the broker and clearing house for the sports betting industry completed a £2.5m fundraising to value the firm at £31.7m.
The group, which had originally hoped to pocket as much as £5m, placed 16.7m shares at 15p each to help crank up its marketing campaign over the next 18 months. It already has £2m in the bank.
Media and sales personnel will be used to recruit more wholesale and retail clients, while more broking staff will also be required to handle the new clients, it said.
The shares traded as high as 17.5p at the open before dipping back to steady at 16p a throw, pricing the company at just under £34m.
Chairman and chief executive Wayne Lochner said he was “pleased” with the levels of support from new shareholders.
“This listing makes both strategic and commercial sense as we take Betbrokers to the next stage of its development,” he added.
The UK based group, which formally launched operations in 2005, is the first business in the country to provide clearing and intermediary services to the sports betting industry.
It hopes to provide punters with the best price from different bookmakers and betting exchanges using just one trading account. It can also accommodate large and complex bets.
The firm is focused on providing brokerage, settlement, risk management, clearing house services, data-sales and analysis tools to clients in the sector.
These include mainly high net worth individuals who might be professional traders looking to take advantage of mis-priced odds rather than betting purely for the fun of it.
Meanwhile, its telephone intermediary brokerage service, based in London’s Canary Wharf, allows customers to confidentially take or lay bets, charging 3% of stake for the privilege.
source : http://www.sharecast.com/cgi-bin/sharecast/story.cgi?story_id=892655
