500.com to dispose of its lottery business

500.com, now known as BIT Mining, has announced its decision to dispose of its Chinese lottery business for nil consideration.

China.- The former Chinese sports lottery services provider 500.com, now known as BIT Mining after becoming a cryptocurrency mining enterprise, has announced its decision to dispose of its Chinese lottery business for nil consideration.

BIT Mining has exited its Chinese lottery related business and it will now focus on the overseas crypto mining business. The company also announced that it would eliminate its variable interest entity (VIE) structure, a series of subsidiaries that own the lottery business.

According to the company, the decision was taken due to the continued losses sustained by the Chinese lottery operations. 

During the first three months of the year, 500.com announced that total assets held by the VIE subsidiaries represented RMB82.8m (US$12.6m), or 6.3 per cent, of the company’s total assets. Net debt held by the VIE subsidiaries was RMB161.6m (US$24.6m).

In February, 500.com reported an adjusted net loss of RMB138.5m (US$ 21.5m) for full-year 2020.

The loss for the last quarter was RMB56.1m (US$ 8.6m), compared to a loss of RMB322.7m (US$ 50m) in the last three months of 2019. The reduction in losses was due to lower operating expenses and the absence of previous impairment provisions.

Net revenue for the last quarter of 2020 was RMB9m (US$1.4m), a slight increase from the RMB8.6m in Q4 2019.