British bookmaker Ladbrokes reported surging pre-tax profits, up 61 per cent to £39.7 million on Thursday, helped by some favourable sporting results.
The company recorded pretax profit of £25.2 million, in the six months to June, compared with a pretax loss of £51.4 million recorded in the year ago period. Revenue was at £661.8 million from £588.8 million.
The bookmaker enjoyed a 15 per cent rise in the number of football bets, in part due to the surprise success of Premier League underdogs Leicester City, last season.
Ladbrokes said the “sporting gods” had been on its side as it benefited from a series of favourable results at Euro 2016. The company enjoyed a windfall owing to the early exit of England, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which punters wagered large amounts on.
Jim Mullen, chief executive, cautioned against over-optimism, however: “History would strongly dictate that such a run of results in our favour would see customer staking suffer, but encouragingly these numbers firmly buck that trend and combine strong staking and a good margin.”
He added: “We will endure a run of customer friendly results and margins will normalise.”
Ladbrokes’ digital division posted the strongest results, with revenues up 41 per cent. The UK retail business also grew sales by 6.4 per cent.
The bookmaker received regulatory approval for a £2.3 billion merger with Coral in July but the pair must sell around 400 betting shops to assuage fears about lack of competition in the sector.
The combined company will become the largest bookmaker in the UK. Ladbrokes said it had started looking for potential buyers and aims to complete the bidding process by September.
The company maintained its 1p dividend.
Despite the caveat, the firm said it had slightly raised its full year expectations. Shares rose 5 per cent in early trading before dropping back to a 2.8 per cent gain.
