Morning Brief: Brokers, Bears, Bulls and Biz

Daniel Stewart & Co., the London brokerage, has published a sector note that posits Playtech Ltd., 888 Holdings and Neteller among the top online performers in the 2008 fiscal year.

On Playtech: "At 20x FY08E earnings currently, should we be holders still? While the multiple is clearly aggressive, we are moving from hold to Buy given that we fully expect the group to complete a significantly earnings accretive deal in the short-term (possibly in the next few weeks)."

On 888: "The share improvement this year has kept the shares up with events and, on 14x FY09E EPS, we see the rise as justified, but with limited scope for further outperformance, saving an unexpected catalyst such as corporate activity. On this basis, we retain our Hold recommendation."

On Neteller: "The other riser in our online-focused universe is Neteller. This has been driven by positive fee revenue and margin progression during Q1, followed by strong Q2 KPIs, as well as the completion of the sale of its Calgary property (c.$33m)."

More financial news as Bwin Interactive Entertainment revealed a 36 percent rise in first-half revenues against the previous-year period. Average revenue per customer was down marginally, though player acquisition costs were down. Full story with analyst comments to come later today.

Finally, for those following the dispute between Boss Media A.B. and Trillion Ltd., legal sources tell us the Maltese judge in the case has yet to pass his decision to the registry. We'll be watching the development of this case closely; please stay tuned for further updates.