Internet betting a dead cert for William Hill

Betting chain William Hill has reported half-year earnings showing its online growth outstripping the rise in its high street earnings more than four-fold.

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The company reported gross revenue of £498.2m for the half year ended 1 July 2008. Its retail business grew by five per cent compared with the same period in 2007 to £421.3m.

This is compared to 21 per cent growth in its online business. However, this equates to only £67.6m - about 13 per cent of William Hill's total revenue, roughly in line with the current growth in the online retail sector as a whole.

Interestingly, revenues made through telephone betting fell, from £29.2m for the first half of 2007, to £22.8m for the first half of this year.

In the report, the company said the growth in online revenues was due in part to greater investment in marketing, which will carry on through to November when its online sportsbook - a guide betters use to look up a prospect's form - is relaunched.

However, the company said: "The site continues to be adversely impacted by its legacy technology platform, which puts it at a disadvantage to competitor sites."

In January, the company decided to purchase a new technology platform, called Orbis, to support the relaunch of its online sportsbook.

The company said: "Orbis is the industry leading platform and, once implemented, will allow us to overcome our current technology disadvantage. The project is on target for delivery by the end of November 2008."

Costs for the online channel have increased by 21 per cent over the quarter to cover increased investment in staff, marketing and site content.