Probability Shares Up 23% on Profitable Half

Probability, the mobile gambling specialist, has reported maiden net profits of £103,000 on revenue of £2.6 million for the half year ending Sept. 30.

Net margins came in at 3.9 percent against losses of £599,000 during the previous-year period. Gaming revenue during the second quarter, £1.37 million, was up 10 percent versus the previous quarter.

The majority of the London company's revenue, Chief Executive Charles P. Cohen told IGN in previous interviews, derives from its mobile casino called "LadyLuck's." Probability also white-labels its services to Rank Group and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

As on the company's second-quarter K.P.I. statement, it continued to emphasize economic player acquisition and now lays claim to 400,000 or so clients.

With its products reaching approximately 95 percent of United Kingdom mobile users, according to research from Probability's house broker, Collins Stewart, Probability has announced it will be pushing LadyLuck's into international markets that it did not identify.

"First, [expanding internationally] should add incremental growth by leveraging its existing platform and resources," Paul Leyland, an analyst with Collins Stewart, wrote in a research note today. "Second, [expansion] capitalizes on the increasing regulatory acceptance of remote gambling, particularly at the softer end of the market."

Asia is likely off the agenda, as Mr. Cohen remarked in July that regulation there is still unclear enough to deter network operators from partnering with mobile gambling firms.

Collins Stewart is projecting adjusted pre-tax losses, at fiscal yearend, of £1 million, down from £2.3 million last year. Mr. Leyland has Probability on track to report a maiden full-yearly profit in 2009.

The results went over well in the City today. Probability, with a market capitalization of £8 million, was up 8.50 pence, or 22.97 percent, to 45 pence.