William Hill has announced a trading statement for the unaudited 52 weeks ending December 27, 2016.
The company reports that underlying trends remain encouraging, even though the sector has been hit by December football and racing results.
In the nine weeks since the company’s trading statement on November 14, 2016, wagering trends continued in line with those previously reported. However, gross win margins were lower than expected, with a full year operating profit of £260m, largely due to unfavourable football and horseracing results impacting the sector during December.
Philip Bowcock, interim CEO, said: "Importantly, the improvements we saw in wagering in online and Australia in the second half have continued in recent weeks. However, all four divisions saw customer-friendly results at the back end of the year, which translated into profits being £20m below our prior expectations.
"With key underlying trends continuing to be positive, the recent run of sporting results have not changed our confidence in a better performance in 2017."
The 2016 final results will be announced on February 24.
