500.com reports 82.8 percent decrease in net revenue in 2015

Tuesday 23rd of February 2016

China online sports lottery service provider 500.com reported a 82.8 percent decrease in net revenue at RMB99.6 million (US$15.4 million) for the full year 2015.

Operating loss was RMB301.4 million, representing a 301.6 percent decrease from operating profit in 2014, which was at RMB149.5 million. Net loss attributable to 500.com was RMB323.9 million.

The operator cited the temporary suspension of all provincial sports lottery administration centers, which began in March 2015, ordered by China’s Ministry of Finance in early 2015 as the main reason for the loss.

“We voluntarily and temporarily suspended our online lottery sales operations in response to the promulgation of the Self-Inspection Notice. Such temporary and voluntary suspension materially and adversely impacted our financial and operational results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2015.” said Zhengming Pan, CEO of 500.com.

The company also mentioned its investment of RMB233.1 million to acquire 63 percent of equity interests in Zhejiang Shangmeng Technology Co., Ltd. also known as Sumpay.cn. The purpose of the acquisition is to improve cost efficiency of the company's payment processing while helping Sumpay.cn to grow and diversify its online payment services business, says the announcement.