William Hill bookmaker sees strong start

Bookmaker William Hill said today it had kicked off 2007 in strong fashion after seeing an 11% boost in the amount of money left by punters.

The company posted pre-tax profits of £292.2m (€427.61m), beating consensus forecasts of £241.5m (€353.45m) for the group, which has more than 2,100 betting shops in the UK, as well as a growing number of Irish outlets.