Sportech sees sales slide at half-year stage

Profits at Sportech tumbled at the half-year stage, as sales declined at all of its three units and the company invested in its football pools business.

For the six months ending on 30 June, the sports gaming specialist and football pools operator said revenues were off by 5% to £48.7m, contributing to a 66% decline in statutory profits before tax to hit £2.7m.

The company incurred in £4.5m of execeptional administration costs, up from £0.9m in the comparable period of 2015, of which £2.5m were the result of modernising its football pools and closing its collector channel.

During the period, the company also received a £97.0m VAT reclaim from HMRC linked to its "Spot the Ball" game.

HMRC had lodged an application to appeal directly to the Supreme Court, with a decision on whether to haer the appeal expected in Autumn 2016.

That allowed Sportech to trim its net debt by 6% to £59.8m and boosted its net cash position from -£61.1m to £36.2m.

The football pool operator was trading in line with management expectations and looked forward to delivering further progress in 2016, the company said in a statement.

A further update regarding a possible sale of Football pools would be provided in due course, Sportech said.

As of 1604 BST shares in Sportech were edging higher by 0.36% to 70.25p.