10.02.2005 – 09:32

betbull - The European Betting Exchange Plc.

euro adhoc: betbull - The European Betting Exchange Plc.
Quarterly or Semiannual Financial Statements
Betbull announces 2004 Preliminary Results and Development of Strategy

Disclosure announcement transmitted by euro adhoc.
  The issuer is responsible for the content of this announcement.

10.02.2005

Highlights 2004:

- Achievements 2004:  Start-up, Product launch, and IPO
 - Cash position end of 2004 at 12.9 million Euros (2.9 Euros per
   share)
 - Consolidated net loss of 3.5 million Euros - significantly below
   market expectations
 - Continental European market for consumer business ("B2C") too
   immature
 - Product further improved

Strategy highlights:

- Focus on partnerships with bookmakers and racing associations
   ("B2B")
 - First step with co-operative on German horse racing taken
 - Roll out to the rest of Europe (including sports betting)
 - Expansion of product offering planned with strategic partnerships
 - Acquisition of complementary businesses under investigation
 - Organization and structure being adapted to meet new strategic
   requirements

Announcement of audited management accounts on or by 31st of March
2005

Preliminary results for the year 2004

Significant achievements in the year ending 31st December 2004, were
the establishing of betbull - The European Betting Exchange PLC in
February, the product launch of the exchange betting platform
www.betbull.com in September and the successful completion of an
Initial Public Offering on the Viennese Stock Exchange in October

Betbull raised in the course of the IPO under the lead management of
Erste Bank a net amount of 13.0 million Euros.  Betbull began the
year 2005 with a total of 12.9 million Euros of short term liquid
assets corresponding to 2.9 Euros per share.  In relation to the
Austrian Depositary Certificates issued during the IPO ("ADC") the
cash coverage was 6.1 Euros per ADC compared to the net proceeds of
IPO of 6.2 Euros per ADC.  Günter Schmid, CEO:  "We still have the
full financial flexibility that the IPO gave us to develop our
business."

The consolidated net loss of betbull amounted to 3.5 million Euros
which was significantly below market expectations.  1.9 million Euros
or 55% of that was accounted for by fund raising related activities,
including IPO.  The remaining 1.6 million Euros were spent on
preparing and launching the business and marketing, further improving
the scalability of the IT platform, as well as market research
activities.

Overall betbull remained significantly below budgeted expenses and
costs.  The principal reason for this being that first marketing
measures resulted in customer acquisition costs above the industry
average and resultant customer activity below company expectations. 
This was notably also the case for the target segment of experienced
bettors.  Results from tests and analyses conducted by the company in
Continental Europe suggest that the target customer base is too
immature to fully adapt to the current betting exchange format.  In
addition, betbull has initially focused on a sports betting offering
without horse racing, which has proved to lack the frequency of
events necessary to provide sufficient betting opportunities.  Also,
the odds volatility on sport betting markets is not ideal for the
trading techniques employed by experienced bettors.  Amongst other
categories of bettors there is a desire to see a simplified user
interface, with the option to later on graduate towards a more
complex trading environment.  Simon Bold, COO:  "A substantial
segment of bettors are not ready to fully migrate to a betting
exchange.  Although they understand the advantages, the superior odds
and the opportunity to trade, they shy away from learning to use the
standard user interfaces.  We believe however, that within the next
18 to 24 months a level of maturity comparable to the UK may be
reached."

Thus betbull has drastically reduced direct marketing spend and has
focused on striking partnerships with bookmakers and racing
associations wishing to expand their existing offering with a betting
exchange product.  Correspondingly low are the number of active
customers (700), the customer accounts cash balance (29,000 Euro),
and the gross commission (2,300 Euro).

Meanwhile betbull has substantially improved the user interfaces and
has started an ongoing continuous improvement process.  The stability
of the IT-platform may be emphasized - there were no down times
outside the scheduled maintenance windows.  The liquidity on the
betting exchange was satisfactory.  A team of experienced liquidity
managers accounted for the major fraction of available liquidity. 
Bettors could place bets at odds that were clearly superior to
bookmaker offerings.

Strategy

For the future betbull will focus on partnering with bookmakers,
racing associations and other sporting bodies:  "betbull - the
co-operative exchange".

The underlying model of a co-operative exchange is comparable to that
of the stock exchanges.  The participating bookmakers pool liquidity
and commissions on the platform and receive a share of the profits. 
The exchange betting offering will be fully integrated into the
current bookmaker offerings.  Bettors would place their bets on the
co-operative betting exchange using their existing bookmaker
accounts.  The advantages for betbull as operator of the co-operative
betting exchange are:  high liquidity, low customer acquisition cost,
and high fraction of repeat business.  Participating bookmakers
profit from stopping the erosion of their customer base towards
independent and competitive betting exchanges.  In particular, the
rapidly growing sector of live betting is highly vulnerable to the
competing betting exchanges.  Günter Schmid, CEO:  "Propagating the
co-operating model sets us clearly apart from competitors who
traditionally antagonize bookmakers, racing associations, and other
sporting bodies."

Initially betbull will focus on the German market.  A clear and
defendable unique selling proposition can be built there by occupying
the horse racing market.  In addition, the overall market potential
in Germany is very high and still largely untapped.  The first major
success in this endeavor is the completion of agreements with the
International Club in Baden Baden and the Münchener Rennverein that
are among the leading operators of horse racing in Germany.  The
agreements cover the joint and exclusive promotion of a co-operative
betting exchange.  Betbull is currently negotiating to incorporate
leading German bookmakers into the agreements.  Starting with a
national horse racing offering betbull intends to expand to
international horse racing and launch the co-operative betting
exchange under the www.betbull.de brand and site.

In a second step betbull will expand the co-operative model to
European online-bookmakers.  betbull has entered into corresponding
talks.

In addition to sports and horse betting betbull plans to expand into
other related online gaming markets and products.  betbull has
entered talks and negotiations with strategically identified key
partners that may be completed soon.  Apart from that betbull
currently looks into the expansion of the exchange betting business
in other complementary business fields through M&A.  Of particular
interest are other person to person applications and other forms of
gaming.  betbull is currently considering some interesting
candidates.

betbull is currently re-organizing its operations toward a team based
organization.  The organization will be adapted to the needs of the
currently pursued strategy.

Günter Schmid, CEO:  "Betbull will continue to develop its business
in a concentrated fashion.  This, of course, does not exclude us from
exploiting opportunities that fit into the overall picture. 
Considering the strong cash position, the early success in
partnering, the product improvement and the existing cost structure,
the outlook for betbull is promising.  It will take time until the
strategy and the progress find their way into the balance sheet.

Simon Bold, COO:  "The long term prospects remain excellent and the
team is committed to succeeding in an ever changing competitive
environment."

betbull will announce the audited management accounts in accordance
with Vienna Stock Exchange regulations on or by the 31st of March
2005.

END OF NOTICE

About betbull
betbull has the goal to become one of the leading betting exchanges.

Exchange betting enables person to person betting over the Internet. 
Exchange betting offers the following advantages over placing bets
with a bookmaker:  Better odds, no limits, and betting for or against
an outcome.  Licensed in Gibraltar, the betbull betting exchange was
launched in September 2004 under www.betbull.com.

betbull’s vision is to become the "bookmakers exchange".  Bettors
would enter the exchange through existing accounts via a fully
integrated exchange betting offering.  Midterm a major fraction of
the single- and live bets will be traded, cleared, and settled
through betbull’s exchange.  The high caliber management team (Günter
Schmid, CEO and Simon Bold, COO) can resort not only to state of the
art bookmaking and operating know how but also relevant M&A expertise
and track record.

Betbull was started in 2004 as a joint venture of betandwin.com
Interactive Entertainment AG (stock quoted on the Viennese stock
exchange) and Fun Technologies Plc (formerly traded as CES-Software
Plc, stock quoted on the Alternative Investment Market in London) and
is stock quoted since October 2004 on the Viennese stock exchange
("BETB", "BETB.VI").

For further details please refer to the company website
www.betbullplc.com.

This communication contains statements about the future (prognoses). 
Those statements are based on the Directors’s opinion, assumptions
made by the Directors, and information available to the Directors. 
One or several factors that the Directors cannot foresee with
certainty could result in outcomes and events that deviate from the
prognoses.  All prognoses are valid only on the date of their
announcement.  betbull has no intentions to and is not obliged to
update prognoses or to adapt prognoses to future events or
developments.

This communication can be downloaded from the website
www.betbullplc.com.

end of announcement                    euro adhoc 10.02.2005 09:02:00 

Further inquiry note:

Alex Mackey, Catullus Consulting (+44 7773 787 458)
Catriona MacNiven, Investor Relations
Günter Schmid, CEO (upon request)
Simon Bold, COO (upon request)

Fon +35 052561
Fax +35 044554
betbull - The European Betting Exchange Plc ("betbull")
1 London Wall
London EC2Y5EB

Branche: Casinos & Gambling
ISIN: AT0000615331
WKN:
Index:
Börsen: Wiener Börse AG / Regulated free trade