World Cup betting boosts Betfair profits

The World Cup boosted profits at Betfair. Photograph: Graham Turner

Betting on the World Cup helped to drive quarterly revenues and profit at Betfair to record levels, the online gambling firm said.

Core profit rose 39% to 34.5m in the three months to the end of July, with revenues up by 30% to 117m.

"We are encouraged by the performance in the first quarter and the momentum of the business, and accordingly remain confident that we can deliver our expectations for the full year," Betfair chief executive Breon Corcoran said.

Analysts welcomed the trading statement, which covers the first three months of its financial year.

Betfair operates an exchange that allows gamblers to bet against each other and has sought to attract more mainstream customers by developing products in which the bookmaker sets the odds centrally.

An advisory group has urged investors to reject Betfair's annual report at its shareholder meeting later on Thursday because of concerns over accounting.

Pensions and Investment Research Consultants (PIRC) has said that dividends and share buybacks worth more than 60m paid between 2011 and 2013 were "illegal" because Betfair had insufficient distributable reserves to cover them.

Betfair has accused PIRC of misrepresenting the facts. Corcoran noted that Betfair had itself flagged up what he called a "technical issue" in its annual report and had taken action to tackle it.

"Management moved quickly to resolve the issue and brought it to the attention of shareholders," he said, adding that the company had one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry.

The company said it expects strong support from shareholders at its meeting.