There were a number of news items coming out of the Sportingbet camp in the last couple of days.

Firstly, Sportingbet CEO Andy McIver was quoted in by Reuters as saying that he was confident that his company and the United States could reach a settlement concerning "illegal online gambling" by the end of the year.

McIver probably won't be led away in chains and shackles, a la David Carruthers, should he enter the U.S. before then, as he and his company, obviously, are currently negotiating and as Reuters says, "an agreement would prevent U.S. authorities taking action against the company in relation to its U.S. businesses prior to legislation being passed in October 2006."

"We will hopefully reach agreement in the current calendar year, it's not going to be [resolved in] weeks," explained McIver.

"The talks have been very amicable and very positive but incredibly slow."

Also the company released financial results from its Q2 ended January 31, 2009 and according to Sportingbet's corporate site, highlights for the quarter included:

-Operating profit* up by 35 percent to £10.1 million,
-Operating profit margin now at 23 percent,
-Adjusted fully diluted EPS* up 36 percent to 1.9p,
-Live sports streaming helping to drive in-running betting and
-Licensed South African sports betting operation launched.

While highlights for the first half included:

-Operating profit* up by 39 percent to £16.2 million,
-Adjusted fully diluted EPS* up 32 percent to 2.9p,
-Strong sports betting performance in both Europe and Australia,
-Poker market remains highly competitive across Europe and
-Net cash** of £27.3 million

* Adjusted to exclude exceptional items, share option charge and amortization

** Net of long term debt and customer liabilities