We are seeing a market that has experienced extraordinary rates of growth. We are seeing those rates moderate. That pace of moderation has been slightly greater than we expected.
From an investor's point of view, it will do us well to reduce our dependence on the United States market.
We think cross-selling is important, but we're not obsessing about whether one of those products is sports betting.
We made it very clear throughout the IPO process that we would stick to the knitting and concentrate on our core product, i.e. poker, in our core market, the United States and that is something that absolutely we are doing,
Some foreign investors will be bullish about the move but some others will possibly be wary of riots. Inflation will be a negative side effect.
We now look forward to the launch of the Party-branded integrated platform in the first half of 2006, when we will expand the number of games available to our customers.
Whilst the online gaming market and poker in particular continues to show strong year-on-year growth, the rate of growth is continuing to moderate,
We returned a strong performance from our poker business while our casino business' performance was nothing short of outstanding.
Uribe is such a breath of fresh air in Latin America; it's nice to have a country down there that's dependable.
As it does so, the group will continue to adapt its marketing strategy and infrastructure to provide greater focus on customer retention and player value.
There will be two new products next year. In the first half there will be a person-to-person skill game and in the second half there will be another more akin to casino.
The success of blackjack has transformed our casino business. Through effective cross-selling to our large customer base, we are well on the way to creating the world's largest online casino.
The more distribution channels customers have to play on, the better. And interactive television is something we're looking at seriously.
You're talking about an industry that's had almost unprecedented growth rates, remarkably high growth rates. Very clearly, they are moderating over time. Very clearly, they will continue to moderate. But let's be clear, they're moderating from very high levels,
It's a pretty bold move. I don't think public protests will be long lasting,
It's been a long time coming. It certainly is a landmark.
The beauty of it all is that we've invented nothing new. We're just taking games that have been around for decades and putting them in people's homes.
It will be useful to the world at large in addition to the markets because that will give a feel for the first time about how, in general, the world thinks Iraq is going.
It will be the political situation as well as the oil price and the level of oil exports. But I suppose it will also force Iraq to become more transparent because the markets will want to see more transparency and if they don't see the figures some investors will dump the bonds.
Once he is re-elected we may take another look at Colombia.
I am pleased to say that the picture for October to date is much better.