British betting shop chain William Hill posted a near 40 per cent rise in half-year profits today but said growth in its winnings had slipped during July and August.
The company, which runs around 1,600 betting shops and offers telephone and online gambling, reported pretax profits of £118.4 million (€174.3 million) for the 26 weeks to June 29th, compared with forecasts of £113-116 million.
The group reported that its gross win - the amount left behind by its customers after betting - rose 18 per cent in the half year. But in the eight weeks to August 24th the gross win was up just 8 per cent as British horse-racing results were not as favourable to bookmakers as those in the first half.
The interim dividend rose 57 per cent to 5.5 pence a share, while by September 3rd, the group had repurchased some 3.4 per cent of its issued share capital.
Shares in William Hill, which recently joined London's FTSE 100 index of top blue-chip stocks, have outperformed this index by 23 per cent during 2004 and other leisure stocks by around 12 per cent.
The shares were floated at 225p in June 2002, and closed on Friday at 542-1/2p.