Net Bet Blog

What are blogs for if not to report on totally unsubstantiated rumours. This one is even less substantiated than most to the extent that I don't believe a word of it but we are merely here to report the word on the street.

That word is that following the recent corporate action and fund raising at Leisure and Gaming (LNG) that Harry Birch has left the company for reasons not made clear. One would have thought if true that this would warrant a RNS to report this news to the City. Time will tell.

The question is who will replace Harry, internal, external and is this action in any way related to the new VCs that have recently ploughed money in.

Watch this space and the ADVFN bulletin boards (thanks for a comment on this blog for the tip). LNGs share price was up slightly today on this non-news.

EDIT: It looks like this rumour was merely a rumour after all with no semblance of truth do it. The ADVFN chatter boards appear to have added 2 + 2 and got 5. Birch can now continue his holiday unhindered by rumours of his departure.

In our series of totally unsubstantiated rumours we are happy to report that Neteller (NLR) may be in bid talks.

In the spirit of testing the companies I report on I use Neteller regularly (unfortunately the money tends to go in one direction). The product is high quality and I have never had any problems. It is quick, efficient and importantly, totally and utterly free if used sensibly.

The FT reports:

Neteller presents juicy target [FT]

By Neil Hume and Michael Hunter

Published: May 15 2008 03:00 | Last updated: May 15 2008 03:00

Neteller was in demand late yesterday amid rumours that the online payment processor had received a takeover approach.

Traders said they would not be surprised if there was something in the speculation. Recent trading has been good and the company has cash and cash-equivalents of nearly £25m, against a market capitalisation of almost £80m. Neteller closed 6.7 per cent higher at 68p.

NLR is certainly worth the broker targets of around £1.12. I think it is worth more. It is cash rich, in a growing market, has a credible position in the financial market (with NETBANX) and would make an excellent purchase in the same way PayPal was an excellent buy for EBay. If NLR can crack Asia where it is making good progress we could be back to the £4.00 level. Re-entry to the US is also a future possibility. Undervalued at present.

If any company executives are reading, you know who you are, my advice would be to tell 888.com to buy NLR. This may indeed be one of the interested parties but 888.com, if you are not currently looking at NLR then I recommend you do so.

In other news NLR released an AGM statement this week. in light of the "rumour" I present the full text of the statement here.

"Since my statement to shareholders at our last Annual General Meeting in August 2007, I am pleased to report that the NETELLER Group has made substantial progress in rebuilding and repositioning its business to achieve its three year vision of becoming the leading provider of bold payment solutions to selected online communities.

Our restructuring into Merchant Services and Member Services divisions, launched at the start of this year, has enabled us to begin to deliver our full payment product suite to merchants both within and increasingly outside of our traditional online gambling base. The contract wins recently announced by our NETBANX gateway business are examples of this broadening of our merchant base. We continue to add
solutions and develop partnerships that over time will facilitate much broader and more cost effective use by our end-user consumers of their e-wallets. The launch of the Net+ card programme later this year should make the NETELLER e-wallet an even more compelling alternative payment solution for individuals who value security, privacy and simplicity when transacting online.

The board is pleased with the progress the Group has made in the year to date. rading in the first month of the second quarter has shown promising signs that the Group's programme launches and product initiatives are delivering increased revenue, with April's fee revenue (excluding revenue from the Group's gateway businesses, NETBANX and 1-PAY Direct, the 1-PAY e-wallet in Asia, foreign exchange and investment income) recorded at $3.8 million, an increase of 15% from March's comparable revenue. The second quarter is traditionally slower for the online gambling industry. Despite this industry trend, initial indicators are suggesting that the impact of our broadening product range and focus are already beginning to deliver benefits to the Group. With continuing emphasis on ensuring our cost base is appropriate to effectively support our growing operations, the Group is generating positive cash flows from operations on a month-by-month basis.

I extend sincere thanks to all of our employees for their continuing efforts in helping to build our rapidly evolving business across the world, to our shareholders for their continued support and commitment to NETELLER, and to our customers and merchants for continuing support of our offering and business. The board looks forward to continuing progress during the balance of the year and beyond.

The Group's next formal announcement will be an update to shareholders on the Group's
progress prior to entering our close period in July 2008."

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Breaking news - read without believing until the news hits the streets.

Poker Trillion are suing Boss Holdings Limited and Boss Media Malta Poker Ltd.

To quote Poker Trillion:

The freezing order has been made in conjunction and relating to a €45million initial law suit being taken by POKERTRILLION against Boss Media and Webdollar for alleged fraudulent, and potential criminal activities of various personnel and/or the management of Boss Media, or their associated companies in various jurisdictions including but not restricted to, Sweden and Malta.

Poker Trillion are a new entrant to the market and are clearly not happy with Boss Media. Should BOSS media punters take out their money? It is not for us to say but care needs to be taken.

Again WARNING - rumour only!

This strikes me as a quite insane situation and as investors we need to track events very closely. Something smells rather bad about this whole situation.

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To start off our "rumour" season we being with an interesting little number from the Daily Express which writes:

MARKET REPORT: Vodafone (speculation it could bid for Tiscali; also suggestions
British Sky Broadcasting could be interested in Tiscali), Chaucer (vague bid
chatter), Shaftesbury (talk persists of corporate activity in the sector), FKI
(mounting speculation that Blackstone is about to trump a recent approach by
Melrose), Gaming VC often touted as a bid target, but some traders reckon it
could be on the lookout for an acquisition of its own; Leisure & Gaming seen as
a potential target)

RUMOUR WARNING - HIGH. Read at your own risk.

This is astonishing for a number of reasons. First, GVC and LNG are particular favourites of this blog and we have covered them many times (see labels for more).

I have posted in the past on both these events. (1) GVC does have a war chest of around £20-£25m for aquisitions (must be a banking arrangement). However, they also represent a tasty morsal themselves. They are growing rapidly in Spain and Russia and have a strong position in high spending Germany. They are also on a insane yield of something like 20-30%. Regulatory worries over Germany explain the low price. The word on the street is that the recent 1 million buys were American.

(2) LNG is, we know, in talks with potential buyers/partners. They also, we are led to believe, rejected an offer in excess of 13p late last year.

Now, LNG could also be considered very cheap given their Italian licences but the management appear to be rather poor (but perhaps improving). I personally see LNG as a good target. Good management could buy LNG cheap and turn it around with relatively little effort.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out but BOTH shares might see a run up in their share prices. GVC has had a good 40% increase in recent weeks but LNG remains close to all time lows. I believe that it may be hard to get hold of stock in any size in either company. GVC has a very low NMS (normal market size).

GVC is the owner of Casino Club (see top banner link). As part of the service this blog investigates and tests affiliate offerings. GVC's is "good" and on the way to being "excellent". LNG's in next to useless and gets "poor".

Here is GVC's BEST PERFORMING banner. GVC are a professional outfit make no mistake about that. Read carefully.



These are GVC's other offerings:









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A small post to announce our fist mention on the highly respected Online-Casino's pages.

ONLINE POKER NETWORK ACQUIRES MAJOR 'SKIN'[Online casinos]

Details are still sketchy, but blogs such as NetBet have been examining the rumoured deal for the past two weeks, revealing that affiliates were the first members of the general public to be informed of an imminent player migration, as many will be affected financially. The two poker rooms have not yet combined, but are expected to do so in the immediate future.

Talking of which, I intend to increase the number of "rumours" on this blog. These will be totally unsubstantiated and never to be trusted BUT as with all rumours there is often a "grain of truth" or indeed "no smoke without fire". Watch this space :-)

I will be giving "warnings" after each rumour post and this also means the creation of a new label.

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