Despite economic pressure in two of our biggest markets, Greece and Spain, we delivered a robust performance and hit our profit target of £38.1m. We benefited from a good performance in Australia and our Emerging Markets — a clear demonstration of the benefits of having a geographically diverse business.
I was pleased that we finally settled with the US Department of Justice in September 2010. This has been a long and arduous process so it was good to reach a conclusion and give shareholders certainty on the potential liability.We could now re-enter the US, subject to the prevailing regulation, if we felt it was appropriate to do so. More recently the successful acquisition of Centrebet, secured our market position in the buoyant Australian market and gave a welcome boost to performance.
The acquisition of Centrebet brings a number of benefits. Firstly, it consolidates our position as the leading fixed odds bookmaker in the fast growing Australian market and it puts us in prime position to benefit from any future regulation changes in online casino, poker and in:running products.
Secondly, we will be able to extend our capabilities in the wider sports and internet arena where Centrebet is particularly strong, complementing our leading presence in horseracing and telephone betting.
Finally, we expect to deliver significant cost savings as we merge operations and this integration is progressing well so far.
Very positively! We welcome regulation because it provides certainty over revenues and profit streams. Our experience in Australia suggests that after an initial profit hit as we began to pay tax, within three years, profits recovered and growth returned. This demonstrates the positive impact of being able to market products more widely and with the acquisition of Centrebet, we have taken a major step along the regulatory path in that market.
We are following moves towards regulation in Spain and Greece closely and expect this trend to continue — look at the developments in Italy and even Germany. We meet extensively with licensing authorities to put our views forward — they are often well received — and we are very happy to contribute to the regulatory debate.