The topsy-turvy results in the English Premier League this season may have been a boon to bookmakers, but if Leicester City do go on to win the title it will cost Coral about £4 million.
Paul Bowtell, the chief financial officer, said that while the run of unexpected results this season had boosted margins, it had taken a large number of bets on Leicester at between 500-1 and 2,500-1. After this week’s results, the Foxes are 13-8 favourites to win the league.
Coral, which is in the throes of a merger with Ladbrokes, suffered its seventh worst weekend for football results in the past ten years in November, which hit its first-quarter figures.
In the three months to January 16, total earnings for the group rose 14 per cent to £62.4 million, an increase of 59 per cent excluding the impact of the new point of consumption tax, the rise in machine games duty and stake restrictions on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs).
Net revenues for the quarter were 16 per cent better at £47.1 million.
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Although the number of stakes of £50 or above on FOBTs fell 70 per cent, net revenues from the machines rose 4 per cent to £4.1 million with the gross win — the amount left behind by the punter — up 5 per cent to £1,020 per machine per week. The total amount staked on FOBTs during the quarter fell 1 per cent to £2.94 billion.
Carl Leaver, the chief executive, rejected suggestions the machines were fuelling an epidemic of gambling addiction. “Since 1999 the rate of problem gambling has gone from 0.6 per cent to 0.5 per cent and back then there were no FOBTs. If there’s an epidemic, then where is it?”