Winning run for William Hill

BETTING-crazy Britons are pushing bookie William Hill towards a bumper year as they gamble ever more on horse races, football and virtual casinos.

Traditional horse racing now accounts for 41% of group revenue, against 60% three years ago, as punters chance their arms at roulette, David Beckham's future in Spain and even reality TV shows.

Despite growing diversity, the average bet in the group's core chain of betting shops has leapt from £6.50 to £8.50 in the past 12 months.

Chief executive David Harding said: 'Are we bet crazy? I think we probably are. It's a national pastime in the UK and there is now not just horse racing but Big Brother and football. Disposable income is going up faster than inflation and people are not saving as much, so there is more to be spent.'

Underlying profits raced ahead 27% in the six months to 1 July to £101.9m on turnover of £2.7bn, up 72%.

And although Britons are betting more, they are also getting worse at it with William Hill's gross win - the measure of the firm's success against its customers - rising 18%.

Much of the group's purple patch comes from the abolition of betting duty in 2001 but a key to this year's growth has been the success of in-shop fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). These allow customers to gamble on virtual greyhound races and the spin of a wheel. There are 2,525 of the machines in its 1,600 shops.

Harding said a move by the Gaming Board to challenge whether casino-style games should be allowed on FOBTs in shops did not threaten the terminal itself.

The half-year results mark the end of a buoyant summer for William Hill, whose shares have galloped up from a low of 198p in February. Today they rose 2 1/2p to 320 1/2p. Shareholders will get an interim dividend of 3.5p, up 21%.

A Dutch court decision expected tomorrow could cost Hill, its leading rival Ladbrokes and other top British internet bookmakers millions in lost revenue from European markets.

The court is expected to uphold a January 2003 decision backing De Lotto, the Dutch monopoly sports betting and lottery operator, to bar Ladbrokes.com from accepting sports or lottery wagers from Dutch residents, as Ladbrokes is in breach of Dutch law by not having a licence to operate.

John O'Reilly, Ladbrokes' managing director, said: 'Ladbrokes has a fundamental right, under the principles of the single market, to accept bets from anywhere in Europe. If the decision goes against us, we will ask the Dutch Supreme Court to refer the matter to the European Court of Justice, where we are confident of winning.'

Other European countries facing similar problems from British bookmakers, notably Norway, Sweden and Denmark, are likely to use the judgment as a test case to thwart their unlicensed expansion to mainland Europe.