Paddy Power Betfair reveals H1 financial growth

Paddy Power Betfair has this (Tuesday) morning released a trading update for the six months through to June 30, revealing year-on-year growth across key financials.

Revenue in the first half amounted to £827m (€913.4m/$1.08bn), up 9% on the £759m posted in the corresponding period last year.

The firm said that the hike was driven by “good stakes growth” with online stakes up 10%.

Meanwhile, underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came in at £220m, which represents an increase of 21% on the first half of 2016, while operating profit also jumped 22% year-on-year to £180m.

Paddy Power Betfair also noted that earnings per share climbed 23% to 181.1p, with dividends per share up 25% from 52p to 65p.

The company added that for the full year, it expects underlying EBITDA to come in at between £445m and £446m, including £15m of losses in DRAFT.

The trading update comes after Paddy Power Betfair yesterday announced that Breon Corcoran is to step down from his role as chief executive of the company.

Peter Jackson, who had been serving as chief executive of payments business WorldPay, has been lined up to replace Corcoran upon his departure.

Speaking about the first-half results, Corcoran said: “We continue to make substantial investments to position Paddy Power Betfair as a structural winner in a dynamic and highly competitive market.

“The focus of this investment is to use technology to improve efficiency and minimise the cost of servicing our customers and to further enhance our customer proposition.

“The integration of our technology platforms is on track for completion by the end of the year and will bring significant benefits including increased quantity and pace of new product development in 2018 and beyond.

“Ahead of that, our customers and shareholders are already seeing benefits from efficiencies and investments. In the first half alone, customers enjoyed approximately £30m of extra value through better odds, more generous offers and new loyalty benefits.

“Operating efficiency and the annualisation of merger-related cost savings resulted in strong operating leverage in the period, with operating profit up 22%.”

Related article: Paddy Power Betfair names Jackson as CEO after Corcoran exits