A successful World Cup for William Hill sees large profits

The bookmaker William Hill has revealed massive takings after a record £1 billion betting spree over the World Cup. The football tournament turned into the biggest gambling event ever which has generated a huge turnover as well as some massive wins for a few lucky gamblers.

One man was lucky enough to win £275,000 thanks to Spain’s victory. It also earned bookmakers a lot of money as a lot of backers were deterred when Spain lost their opening match to Switzerland.

Of course William Hill made money of a number of patriotic bets by England fans. They are now offering incredibly long odds of 16/1 on England winning the next World Cup. Bookmakers also made money from Brazil losing to Holland in the quarter finals as well as from France and Italy losing in the group stage.

The first quarter saw very strong online growth for William Hill, they were also aided by the distribution of a new generation of gaming machines across its stores . However, total winnings from their betting shops were down 3% year on year and the group suffered against tough trading comparisons with a year earlier. On the other hand they have seen huge online success, their online sales jumped by 24% and their profits climbed by 43% during the first half of the year.

Whilst the World Cup provided William Hill with a great profit making opportunity. Unfortunately for them this year’s Ascot proved to be a different story. They recorded their worst ever results from the horse racing meeting and they actually made a loss.

Roohi Siddiqui, an analyst from BoA/Merrill said, "We regard continuing strong trends in online and an improvement in machines as key catalysts for the stock in 2010, with the World Cup providing an additional boost."