William Hill (LON:WMH) gave an optimistic forecast for full-year operating profits, benefiting from a rise in online sales.
The FTSE-250 bookmaker anticipates revenues to be on the higher end of their predicted range of £260 million to £280 million. The company noted that online sales had seen a rise in revenue of around 4 percent in the four months to the end of October, despite a fall of 3 percent during the early months of the year.
Temporary chief executive Philip Bowcock said:
“In this period we have continued to focus on online’s turnaround, identifying efficiencies and international growth.
“Online has returned to wagering growth in the UK following significant enhancements to our mobile sportsbook in Q2 and we are making good progress on the gaming and user experience improvements in H2, further helped by the Grand Parade team we acquired in August. We will complete the heavy lifting on online’s changes in Q1.
However, despite the promising forecast, full-year profit was down from the previous financial year with operating profit at the higher end of predictions still lower than the 291.4 million pounds reported in 2015.
“Looking forward, we remain on track to deliver 2016 operating profit at the top end of our guided range. With our significantly improved products and user experience, we are confident that this is the right time to invest further in our online business.” Mr Bowcock added.
The British bookmaker had previously instigated talks to acquire Canadian online gambling company Amaya Inc in October, however the merger failed to materialise.
Shares in William Hill were up by around 1.7 percent at 288.3 p at 0834 GMT on the London Stock Exchange.