William Hill Performance Better than Most City Estimates

Friday January 16, 2009

Betting shop and internet gambling business William Hill PLC says trading has held up well in the face of the consumer downturn.

The group, which has 2,300 shops in the UK and Ireland, described its performance as resilient after gross win - the amount left by losing punters - rose eight per cent in the 11 weeks since October 20 and by six per cent for the year as a whole.

William Hill PLC has a regional HQ in Leeds, while its telephone betting arm is handled from call centres in Leeds and Sheffield.

Its e-commerce division is based in Leeds and Gibraltar. William Hill recently bolstered its online gaming and sports betting operation in a deal with software firm Playtech.

Playtech is supplying William Hill Casino, William Hill Poker and other gaming software products, in return for a 29 per cent stake in the new operation.

The deal came a year after William Hill was forced to abandon a long-running upgrade of its internet betting operation - a move which led to a £20.9m write-down in its 2007 results.

The firm has forecast operating profits of £275m for 2008, around £10m higher than most City estimates.