William Hill blames football for revenue falls

Earlier this month Ladbrokes revealed a 15% fall in revenue and now William Hill blames a lack of draws in the Premiership and the success of Manchester United and Chelsea for a 3% fall in revenue for the 3 months ending September 29^th. Apparently we mostly bet on wins when placing wagers on football so when the result is a draw the bookies cash in but to the end of September there were only four draws in the Premiership compared to a normal number of around 25% and add to this the fact that both Manchester United and Chelsea are the most heavily backed teams and they both won 6 out of 7 up to the end of the month. As compensation however they did report an increase in customers,  an increase in its machine business and a good performance from the online business. Forecasts for the full year were unchanged as it is expected that results will normalize. Chief Executive Ralph Topping said “ Business volumes both in our shops and online since the beginning of the football season in mid August have been good with strong turnover in our online sportsbook and encouraging levels of recycling in retail”. Do not feel sorry for them though, the share price jumped some 10% after the results were announced and analysts are still bullish especially with 2010 being a world cup year within our time zone. Perhaps we should all be buying the shares instead of betting on football.