Spread-better Plus500 ups game as curbs loom

Shares in Plus500 jumped 5% today after the spread-better brushed off the threat of a crackdown on the sector and lured its existing customers to log in for more frequent gambling.

Although the Atlético Madrid sponsor’s first-quarter revenues slipped 9% to $77.5 million (£60.5 million), underlying profits rose by a quarter to $45.8 million.

The firm has changed its strategy from obsessing over luring new customers to retaining existing ones and making them more profitable.

So new gambler numbers fell 23% on the same time a year earlier but “active customers”, who made at least one trade during the period, increased 6%, beating City expectations.

Shares in Plus500, which hosts investors betting on financial markets using contracts for difference allowing them to borrow multiples of their initial stake, rose 19.6p to 463.9p.

The Financial Conduct Authority is considering restrictions on leverage to protect clients.

Plus500 also said Penelope Judd, a former compliance chief at UBS and current non-executive director, is to replace chairman Alastair Gordon.