Ladbrokes said it enjoyed continued strong year-on-year growth trends with its online and exchanges net revenue increasing by 32.7 per cent.
The betting company’s margins benefited from a strategic focus on recreational customer base, with growth in BetStation and football, but it was impacted by continued poor horse racing festivals.
Jim Mullen, the company’s chief executive, said: "We've emerged from a busy summer of sport with more evidence that our strategy of appealing to the recreational customer is delivering growth and we remain confident of delivering full-year results in line with our expectations. He said that the company has been encouraged by the customer reaction and continues to enjoy “tremendous success” in Australia. "Our margin has been resilient, benefitting from our strategy of focusing on the recreational customer, deploying BetStation across the estate and growing in football. This margin has been in spite of loss-making racing festivals at Goodwood and York; I said at our half year results in August that sporting results would turn against us and in racing they promptly did.
“However, we did enjoy a strong end to the Euros and a stuttering start to the season for Manchester United and Barcelona has been in our favour. With the Melbourne Cup, an action-packed Boxing Day, the return of the National Hunt season and an intense programme of top level football to come, there remain significant opportunities and risks ahead. "These results have been achieved by a group of colleagues whose commitment to delivering Ladbrokes' plan A has been all the more impressive given the ongoing work towards completion of our merger with Coral. Following our agreement to sell 359 shops subject to CMA approval, we are close to completion of the deal and look forward to the opportunities it will bring to customers, colleagues and shareholders."
