Webis profits hit by California wildfires

Gaming group Webis witnessed a reduction in amounts wagered and gross profits during a "challenging first six months" for WatchandWager.com.

WatchandWager, which relaunched harness racing operations at the Cal Expo racetrack in Sacramento back in November, saw early racing be disrupted by wildfires across California.

Since then, however, Webis said it was "very pleased" with the site's performance in terms of field sizes and wagering.

Webis turned in an overall loss of $590,000 - a 2,850% wider loss than the group recorded in the first half of its previous year.

Gross profits fell 23% at the AIM-listed outfit to $1.7m as group turnover tumbled 47% to $5.38m, mainly driven by a reduction of betting activity in its international business-to-business operations.

Looking forward, Webis assured shareholders its performance had been steady since the beginning of the second half.

"Overall, we continue to focus on growing player numbers, whilst keeping close control on costs and implementing further cost efficiencies across the business," said Webis.

"We are more confident that now and will, in the future, have a more stable platform, with a wider spread of business, and consequently less commercial risk."

As of 0930 GMT, Webis shares had slumped 13.02% to 2.30p.