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Casino Group, William Hill, races to Ł102m profits

22/09/2003

Casino group, William Hill, has surged ahead of the field by announcing a 27 per cent rise in profits for the first half of 2003. The firm, which runs 1581 betting shops, shrugged off disappointment on the racetrack and tough comparisons with last year’s football World Cup by posting a profit of Ł101.9 million for the six months to July 1.

Bottom line pre-tax profits came in at Ł85.6m, compared with a loss of Ł12.2m a year ago, when one-off costs associated with its flotation on the London Stock Exchange dragged William Hill into the red.

The casino company said its gross win - the success it has with punters - increased across its retail, telephone and online casino operations. Gross win from William Hill’s retail operations raced ahead by 18 per cent, despite bookies suffering from disappointing results at key events such as the Cheltenham Festival, when punters backed the winning horses.

The firm said the growth resulted from offering casino and online casino gamblers a string of new ways to part with their cash, including fixed-odds betting terminals and virtual greyhound racing screens at its stores. Chief executive David Harding said the initiative meant dog-racing fans could now have a bet earlier in the day and more frequently. "That’s the kind of thing people want - they want to be able to have more smaller bets. It’s the fun of betting," he said.

The number of fixed-odds betting terminals across its stores rose from 1745 to 2525 during the first six months of 2003 - meaning 95 per cent of its branches now have at least one machine. In telephone betting, gross win was ahead by three per cent on the same period last year, despite seeing race results go against the company at Cheltenham.

Meanwhile, its online casinos saw gross win leap 32 per cent with "exceptionally strong" growth in its online casino boosted by the launch of a new online poker game.

The group also said that the nine weeks to September 2 had seen its gross win surge 23 per cent ahead of the same period last year, when a run of less favourable results dragged down William Hill’s takings.

Chairman John Brown said the board was confident about the casino group’s future prospects, which was reflected in the 21 per cent increase in its interim dividend to 3.5p per share. But Mr Harding added: "As ever, the out-turn for the full year will in part be dependent on sporting results in the coming months."

Factors such as an abnormally high number of winning favourites and a long, dry summer which had reduced the number of horses in many races hit bookies’ income.
More Britons are also turning to online casinos for events such as the football World Cup and Wimbledon. There has also been a marked increase in the popularity of betting at online casinos across Europe, with Norway and Germany seeing the biggest rises.

William Hill first attempted to float on the London Stock Exchange in February 1999 but its then owner, Japanese investment house Nomura, scrapped the flotation at the last moment and sold the firm to two private equity houses for Ł825m.

It is the UK’s number two behind Hilton Group’s Ladbrokes in terms of shops, but was the first major gaming group to launch online casino betting at the time of the 1998 World Cup. It is the biggest telephone betting company in the world.