A run of punter wins on small stakes football results accumulator wagers will mean a slightly lower win margin of 17 per cent (2010: 19 per cent) for William Hill this year. Otherwise the bookmaker seems to have enjoyed a steady year, with net sales expected to be 6 per higher and operating profits hitting £277m.
A lot of this performance is down to the excellent sales growth of the company's online betting arm, which Hills owns in a sometimes fractious partnership with Playtech. The online arm will report year-on-year revenue growth of 28 per cent this year, with operating profits in the region of £106m. Meanwhile, the company's vast retail betting estate, comprising of shops on almost every high street, saw wagers increase by 6 per cent but margins pegged below the historic 17-18 per cent range because of those lucky football punters.
