SOURCE: BBC News

A rise in internet betters in Australia has helped gambling firm Sportingbet to report a profit for the six months to the end of January.

The firm said it made a pre-tax profit of £2.2m ($4.37m) profit in the period, compared with a £11.4m loss a year ago.

Like many online betting firms, Sportingbet has struggled to revive its fortunes after quitting the U.S. market at the end of 2006.

Laws that came into force then made their operations effectively illegal.

The World Trade Organization ruled last December that such a ban was illegal in a case taken by Antigua and Barbuda.

The ruling was watched closely by foreign gaming sites, but no firms have tested its implications yet.

There has also been a crackdown on online gambling in several European Union member states, including Germany, and this has made it increasingly tricky for internet gaming firms to do business.

Sportingbet says its services are only available from jurisdictions that are "licensed and regulated" including the UK, Alderney, Italy, Antigua and Australia.

Brighter future?

A good performance in the November to January period helped to lift the firm's its half-year results.

In Australia, Sportingbet said the number of customers grew by 46 percent to 18,050. This helped to almost double gaming revenue in the region to £4.9m, up from £2.7m a year earlier.

In Europe too, Sportingbet increased the volume of players, by 9 percent, and number of bets during the three-month period.

"Whilst these results are ahead of where we expected to be at this stage, with a fourth quarter dominated by one major event this year, Euro 2008, we remain confident for the full year's out-turn," said Andrew McIver, Sportingbet's chief executive.

The firm also said that Peter Hicks had returned to the board as non-executive chairman, a position he had held prior to his detention in New York in September 2006 under a warrant issued by state authorities in Louisiana accusing him of "gambling by computer".

The warrant has since been cancelled.