By SIMON HENDERY
Australian bookmaker Canbet, part-owned by Sky City Entertainment Group and Eric Watson, has bought a British property and expects to be in business there by April.
Canberra-based Canbet, which takes more than 95 per cent of its bets over the internet, has been eyeing an expansion into Britain for
about two years. That country's laws and tax regime make it an attractive base for bookmaking operations.
Canbet has paid £1.43 million ($4.3 million) for a Hampshire property, but the move depends on its receiving a bookmaker's permit, which it applied for last month.
Sky City is Canbet's largest shareholder, with a 32.6 per cent stake. Eric Watson's Azzuro Investments is the company's second largest shareholder, at 6.6 per cent.
Sky City has so far failed to hit the jackpot with its A$19.45 million ($21 million) Canbet investment. While Sky City's stake cost it an average of 17Ac a share in 2000 and 2001, the shares traded at between 9Ac and 10Ac for much of last year.
But Canbet's fortunes appear to be looking up. The company says it has now achieved "critical mass" in many of the international sports on which it offers odds. Its bookmaking turnover rose 44 per cent, from A$285 million to A$410 million, in the year to June 30.
Over the same period the company reported an annual profit of A$300,000, compared with a A$4 million loss the previous year.
In an email to clients yesterday, Direct Broking said it continued to recommend Canbet as a speculative buy, on the grounds that it would report a strong full-year profit this year and would benefit from its British expansion.
