William Hill Shares Dive 11% On Profit Alert
William Hill shares dive 11% on profit alert
(Close): William Hill shares closed down more than 11% after the bookmaker cautioned on profits.
It said online trading had been hit by tougher regulation and "the worst Cheltenham results in current history".
It now anticipates full-year operating revenue to be in between ₤ 260m and ₤ 280m, down from ₤ 291.4 m last year. As a result, the FTSE 250 company saw its shares drop almost 40p to 331p.
However, the benchmark FTSE 100 ended flat, up 6.4 points at 6199.1.
Top riser on the FTSE 100 was B&Q owner Kingfisher. Its shares ended up 6% in spite of reporting a 20% drop in full-year revenues to ₤ 512m.
However, when restructuring expenses were removed out, underlying revenues were a better-than-expected ₤ 686m.
William Hill stated there were two primary elements behind the weaker-than-expected efficiency from its online company.
It said it had seen "a velocity in the variety of time-outs and automated self-exclusions over recent weeks", measures which enable punters to halt gambling with a bookmaker.
William Hill stated that while the pattern was "still evolving, we approximate that, must these trends continue around current levels, the following lower profits will minimize online's revenues by ₤ 20-25m in 2016".
Secondly, its profit margins were lower than expected because of European football outcomes and last week's Cheltenham horseracing festival, where bookmakers were hit by big a number of favourites winning races.
William Hill said that despite its online issues, the broader group continued "to trade well" and was in line with expectations.
The business likewise stated it was in "sophisticated discussions" to purchase Openbet, a video gaming software application firm.
William Hill shares dive 11% on profit alert
(Close): William Hill shares closed down more than 11% after the bookmaker cautioned on profits.
It said online trading had been hit by tougher regulation and "the worst Cheltenham results in current history".
It now anticipates full-year operating revenue to be in between ₤ 260m and ₤ 280m, down from ₤ 291.4 m last year. As a result, the FTSE 250 company saw its shares drop almost 40p to 331p.
However, the benchmark FTSE 100 ended flat, up 6.4 points at 6199.1.
Top riser on the FTSE 100 was B&Q owner Kingfisher. Its shares ended up 6% in spite of reporting a 20% drop in full-year revenues to ₤ 512m.
However, when restructuring expenses were removed out, underlying revenues were a better-than-expected ₤ 686m.
William Hill stated there were two primary elements behind the weaker-than-expected efficiency from its online company.
It said it had seen "a velocity in the variety of time-outs and automated self-exclusions over recent weeks", measures which enable punters to halt gambling with a bookmaker.
William Hill stated that while the pattern was "still evolving, we approximate that, must these trends continue around current levels, the following lower profits will minimize online's revenues by ₤ 20-25m in 2016".
Secondly, its profit margins were lower than expected because of European football outcomes and last week's Cheltenham horseracing festival, where bookmakers were hit by big a number of favourites winning races.
William Hill said that despite its online issues, the broader group continued "to trade well" and was in line with expectations.
The business likewise stated it was in "sophisticated discussions" to purchase Openbet, a video gaming software application firm.