Ed Ware’s luck looked to have changed yesterday after his 32Red online gaming business finally came up trumps. Shares in the group rose 1½p to 18p after it said that second-half gross win had risen by 18 per cent on the first half and was up 8 per cent on the same period the year before.
The company, which Mr Ware, a former Ladbrokes executive, founded in 2000 and in which he retains a near-26 per cent stake, said that its turnaround was thanks in large part to the removal of the 32Vegas online casino website. William Hill pulled the rival site in August in the wake of a legal suit for brand infringement and 32Red remains hopeful of receiving significant damages from its larger rival over the issue.
32Red added that trading so far this year had been strong and that it looked forward to developing supporting products, such as 32Red Bet, its sports betting business.
Petroceltic closed ½p up at 15p even though Iberdrola, the Spanish utility, sold its entire 15.7 per cent stake in the oil and gas explorer and abandoned an option to participate in an Algerian gas project. Its shares were placed with a group of new and existing shareholders at 16p per share.
Brulines was unchanged at 142½p after Derrick Collin, the beer flow monitoring group’s founder, said that he was buying Smartcellar, a rival.
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Media Corp rose 0.7p to 3.38p after the media and internet gaming group said that it had made a very strong start to the financial year, returning to profitability in the first quarter. There was also talk that its chief executive was buying more shares.
Renold was unchanged at 21¼p despite a push from Finncap, which said that the chains group was a classic cyclical recovery story.