Ladbrokes said today it had seen a big rise in telephone betting from high-spending customers in recent weeks that helped to offset tough trading in its over-the-counter business.
The British bookmaker - with over 2,500 betting shops in the the United Kingdom, Ireland and Belgium - said operating profit at its telephone betting business would be around £45 million ($90.8 million) higher in the six months to June 30th compared with the same period last year.
This is a big turnaround from the situation after the first four months of the year, when Ladbrokes said business from high-spending telephone customers was down around 10 per cent on the year before.
The telephone betting business made an operating profit of £16.6 million in the first half of 2006.
Ladbrokes, which is due to report first-half results on August 9th, said that apart from telephone betting it was trading in line with expectations despite tough conditions for its betting shops, which face a growing challenge from Internet gambling.