Lucky Punters Are Bad for William Hill

William Hill, the owner of the UK's largest chain of betting shops saw first-half pre-tax profits slide to £99.7m from £119.7m last year, as the group was "hit by a run of unfavourable sporting results," says Forbes. The fall came despite a 30% surge in turnover to £5.1bn from £3.9bn before.

The problem, which it had in common with other bookmakers, was the Euro 2004 football tournament making for tough comparatives, and punter-favouring results on various sporting events.

But results have improved in recent weeks as punters' luck has diminished "the gross win rate has risen to 5.5% in the nine weeks to August 30, compared with a 2.5% rise in costs".

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Better news for shareholders, came in the form of plans to "return wads of cash to shareholders", said ShareCast. The company is set to buy back between £200m to £300m of shares in the next 18 months, while the interim dividend was hiked 11% to 6.1p.

The company bought rival Stanley Leisure's 624-strong betting shop chain in May, taking its total number of outlets to 2,100. The chain's integration is "progressing well", said Reuters.