Betfred's online arm reports "significant decline" in earnings
Digital business hit by new taxes and lower margins as operator pledges renewed focus on retail estate
Betfred has reported a “significant decline” in earnings from its online business after the operator felt the pinch of new gaming taxes and lower margins.
According to a financial statement filed with Companies House, the privately-owned bookmaker reported incurred loss of ?76.3m across the entire group in the year to September 2015.
Betfred said its online business had been most affected thanks to the introduction of the Point of Consumption (PoC) tax, unfavourable sporting results and the closure of its operation in Australia.
The group operates the Betfred.com and Totesport.com brands through its Gibraltar-based subsidiary Petfre, which it acquired in January 2014.
However, thanks to the poor performance of the brands, the directors have recorded an impairment to goodwill on the digital product of almost ?83.2m.
The adjustment marks a significant change from last year’s results, when the online business had generated turnover of ?1.9bn in the prior 18 months. Betfred did not break out any specific figures in this year’s report.
The group is still predominantly driven by its large retail estate comprised of approximately 1,400 high-street shops, and the operator said it will look to focus on this area of the business going forward.
The group’s gross turnover for the reporting period was ?104bn, with EBITDA before exceptional costs (namely the goodwill impairment to the digital business) of ?56.5m.
Betfred recently struck a 10-year platform deal with GVC Holdings in an effort to boost its online business.