2006 World Cup Nets Ladbrokes £17.5mil; Plans for Moves Outside UK

The 2006 World Cup yielded a £17.5m increase in winnings at gambling group Ladbrokes and was the biggest betting event in the group's 120-year history, according to its chief executive, Chris Bell.

'It was a most enjoyable World Cup if you like football, and if you were Italian. And if you were a bookmaker, it was even better,' he said yesterday, reporting a 12.3% increase in interim operating profits to £151.3m.

Of the World Cup winnings, £10.6m is reported in the first half, with a further £6.9m to come in the second six months. The overall gross win for the six months to end of June was up from £467.2m to £523.1m, an increase of 12%, with good performances in online gambling and phone betting, although poker operations suffered as punters turned to the football instead.

These are Ladbrokes' first set of figures as a standalone company after the £3.2bn sale of its Hilton International hotels business in February.

The group also announced yesterday its first move into the Italian market, a joint venture with Italian betting company Pianeta Scommesse. It plans to invest €100m (£68m) in the venture over the next five years.

Mr Bell hopes to expand in China, where it has a consultancy role, Russia and the Asian market. But its plans to move into the United States are on hold until the legality of online gambling is clarified.

The results beat market expectations but some analysts expressed concern about the mix of the earnings and highlighted underlying growth of just 1% in gross winnings on the UK retail side.

But Mr Bell is confident of continued growth at the group's 2,130 betting shops, which should get a boost when the law changes next year to allow evening opening in winter and when the smoking ban in England and Wales should improve the outlets' image.