William Hill a faller at Cheltenham as bookmaker reveals 'worst results' hit

Bookmaker William Hill has warned over profits after its online trading was hit and the group suffered the "worst" Cheltenham horse racing results in recent history.

The FTSE 250 company said lower revenues would knock back online profits by between £20m and £25m for 2016, following a rise in the number of customers taking forced breaks from gambling.

The firm said it had been hit by an "acceleration" in the number of online customers taking "time outs", where they can lock themselves out of their accounts, and "automatic self-exclusions", which force gambling addicts to take a break.

It said the "worst" Cheltenham horse racing results in recent history coupled with poor results on European football also knocked its performance, with online gross win margins hitting 6.2% for the period to March 20 - 1.9% below expectations.

The company's share price also took a hammering, down more than 10%.

Chief executive James Henderson said: "Today's statement reflects the combined effect of our assessment of the impact of recent regulatory changes and unfavourable sporting results including the worst results at Cheltenham in our recent history.

"We are also experiencing softer UK growth as a consequence of acquiring lower value customers. While the rest of the group is performing in line with our expectations, we continue to focus on improving online's performance so that we can, once again, outperform the market."