William Hill, leading gambling company has ruled out a bid for gaming company Rank .The Company has achieved a profit increase of 47 percent for the year 2006.
David Harding, Chief executive of the company commented that a takeover was not on the company agenda. He explained that multi-platform gaming would not evolve in the next few years with the current climatic changes in both the bingo and casino industry.
Harding also commented that online poker and casino had endured a 'challenging second half after an encouraging start to the year,” following the US ban on online gambling. Competitions are becoming tougher in European markets day by day.
David Harding said,' When the US closed down, a number of firms relocated to Costa Rica, so you saw a flight to Costa Rican-based sites not just from American players, but also some European players so that hit our poker business harder than we'd expected'.
Harding concluded his statement,” However, I am delighted with the performance of the group, particularly the retail business, which has prospered this year following the successful integration of Stanley,”
William hill earned total revenue of £166.8 million in the year 2006, which was £113.1 million in the year 2005. The company earned a huge income by wagers placed on the 2006 football world cup.