Webis Holdings shares fell Tuesday after it said that it swung to a pretax loss for the first half of fiscal 2022 on a fall in the amounts wagered.

Pretax loss was $70,000 for the six months ended Nov. 30 compared with a pretax profit of $721,000 in the same period Turnover fell to $6.8 million from $7.4 million, while amounts wagered in the period fell to $39.8 million from $45.4 million the prior year.

Our principal subsidiary, WatchandWager.com experienced a slight reduction in performance versus the same period last year. That said, it should be noted that we continue to trade well above our previous performance levels, with our handle up by 52% versus the same period in 2018/19. In addition, the business has a much wider scope both in terms of revenue levels and strategic opportunities – more of below.

There are some key reasons for this minor downturn: mainly that 2020 and early 2021 months were a unique period for the Company and indeed many online gaming operations. For almost the entire period, we operated with either zero or highly restricted attendance at the key racetracks with which we do business.

Whilst this made our own track somewhat harder to operate, it did assist our online and mobile platforms as players continued to wager, albeit on a more interactive basis. For the six months reported, these trends have changed slightly, with increased competition for the leisure dollar and certain increases in our cost base. More positively, the Board is pleased with our continued licensed position in the USA and California. During the period, we continued to strengthen this for the benefit of shareholders.

Shareholders will note some very exciting developments in the legislation of sports wagering in the United States and the potential for that to be approved in California towards the end of this year. This is a complex business and is commented upon in more detail below. However, we do believe that WatchandWager remains well positioned in California and indeed other States to maximize our competitive advantage. As a result of this we continue to review our strategic opportunities in the USA and California in particular. Nonexecutive Chairman Denham Eke said.