UK bookmaker Betfred has pledged its commitment to further expansion after recording a profit surge of almost £70 million (€83 million/$114.3 million) in the last year.
The Manchester Evening News newspaper reported that Betfred posted revenue for the year to March 31 of £8 billion, an increase on the £6.7 billion recorded in the previous year.
Pre-tax profit grew by 30% from £53 million to £69 million while Betfred was also able to reduce debt by £43 million to £213 million.
Betfred additionally noted that its contribution to the taxman was up by 24% to £89.6 million while its Betfred.com website also delivered strong growth, posting an underlying pre-tax profits growth of 42% from £4.6 million to £6.6 million.
The figures are from the first full set of results the bookmaker has filed since its purchase of former state-owned bookmaking business Tote in 2011 for a fee of £265 million.
When it completed the deal for the Tote, Betfred pledged an annual contribution of £9 million, but has been able to deliver £12.5 million this year, compared to the £11.7 million contributed by the Tote in its final year of state ownership.
As a result of positive operations, Betfred said that it has been able to expand its workforce by around 400 to a total of 10,000 people, working across an estate that includes 1,375 betting shops.
The bookmaker said it now plans to open up to 30 new stores next year and create an additional 150 jobs in the process.
“We are very excited about the future and are positive about the outlook for the business,” Betfred’s co-founder, Fred Done, said.
“We continue to grow strongly and evolve our range of products. Additionally, we are pleased to confirm that we have increased our promised contribution to racing from £9 million to £12.5 million and this together with our levy payments equates to a total payment to Racing of £24.4 million for the financial year.”
source : www.igamingbusiness.com
