The new season of HBO’s Game of Thrones debuts on April 12, so what better way than to liven up this otherwise dull-as-dishwater review of three UK-listed online gambling operators’ earnings reports than with four of the show’s UK-born actresses?

Such as Reading native Nathalie Dormer (pictured right), who plays Margaery Tyrell, the bride who (spoiler alert) got to watch her husband Joffrey Baratheon die at his wedding feast before the little shit got to put his little girlish hands on her grown up woman goodies.

GALA CORAL GROUP

Gala Coral Group issued a fiscal Q1 trading update for the 16 weeks ending Jan. 17, showing continued strong performance by its digital division. Overall revenue was up 5% to £267.4m while earnings rose 11% to £67.3m.

Online revenue rose 27% to £45.8m while online earnings rose 19% to £12.9m. The numbers were all the more impressive given the infamous run of adverse football results that all the other operators are bitching about, plus the Dec. 1 imposition of the new 15% online point-of-consumption tax (POCT).

The quarter saw the merger of the back-office functions of Coral Interactive and Gala Interactive and the adoption of a single management structure, from which the company expects to realize a £1m cost reduction in the current fiscal year.

Coral.co.uk actives rose 49% and spend-per-head rose 17%. Mobile channels accounted for 61% of sports and casino stakes, up 13 points in sports and up 11 points in casino. GalaBingo.com spending was up 33% and mobile usage improved 17 points to 45% of stakes. Coral’s phone betting revenue rose 9% to £1.2m.