William Hill Online revenues climb 5% on gaming growth
Double-digit growth from the operator’s online gaming business in H1 helps offset a 1% fall in sportsbook revenue
William Hill today said it was back to growing “at or above UK market growth” after double-digit gaming uptick helped the operator record a 5% rise in Online H1 revenues.
The UK bookmaker recorded Online net revenue of £290m for the 26 weeks ended 27 June 2017, up from £277.2m the previous year, with online gaming revenues increasing 10% year-on-year to £150.9m.
Gaming revenues were up 10% in both core and non-core markets, which William Hill attributed to improvements to the product and user experience of its casino verticals.
However the company’s online sportsbook recorded a 1% fall in net revenue to £139.1m, despite an 11% increase in amounts wagered, after unfavourable sporting results led to its gross win margin falling to 6.9%.
Revenues from mobile devices increased to 81% of sportsbook net revenue (H1 2016: 70%) and 61% of gaming net revenue (H1 2016: 51%).
In the UK, Online amounts wagered increased 13% and gaming net revenue was up 9%, while overall revenues from Australia were up 5% year-on-year on a local currency basis following a 28% rise in amounts wagered.
Meanwhile, revenues from the US were up 17% but down 5% in Italy and Spain.
William Hill CEO, Philip Bowcock, said the operator had made “good progress” against its three strategic priorities of increasing its UK market share, international revenue growth and delivering its transformation and technology projects.
“Our product improvements combined with improved marketing have seen both existing customers respond positively and the number of new customers start growing again during the period,” he said.
He added: “As a result we are seeing good momentum building in Online’s performance.
“Internationally, our US business continues to perform well and in Australia, with the upcoming Spring Carnival key to the full-year results, we are competing hard and diversifying our product range.”
Online adjusted operating profits increased 32% year-on-year to £57.2m in H1 2017 following savings in a number of external spend categories, lower technology costs and “slightly lower” year-on- year marketing spend.
“Earlier in the year we targeted £40m of annualised savings as part of our transformation programme and we are on track to deliver this by the year-end,” Bowcock said.
He added: “In addition to these savings, the programme has sparked initiatives to further improve our products and customer experience, accelerate our top-line growth and increase efficiency.
“We are confident about delivering a good outturn in 2017 and beyond.”
Group revenue increased 3% to £837m, while adjusted operating profit was down 1%.
William Hill’s share price was up 9.99% to 275.50p on the London Stock Exchange at the time of writing.