WILL HILL FIRST HALF A GOOD ONE

6 July 2007

Earnings "marginally ahead" of first half 2006

Britain's largest bookie group, William Hill plc said in a statement today that first half 2007 earnings before tax were slightly ahead of the same period last year, meeting management forecasts comfortably. Estimates for the full year are optimistic and in line with analyst predictions.

William Hill takes wagers at more than 2 250 UK and Irish betting shops, by telephone and over the Internet. The group has fueled winnings with the 2005 purchase of 560 Stanley Leisure plc betting shops and the addition of 7 600 electronic betting terminals to its outlets and is adding Spanish and Italian outlets to expand.

The Bloombergs news agency reports that the company managed to absorb the absence of soccer's World Cup and changes to amusement machine license duty, which had a combined negative impact of GBP 9 million ($18 million). Sales growth and cost-cutting helped overcome these.

On current share prices, the company is valued at GBP 2.19 billion.

The bookmaker is scheduled to report earnings for the fiscal first half ended June 26 on August 2. Earnings before interest and tax in the same period last year were GBP 160 million. Analysts have estimated profit for the year of GBP 294.8 million on that basis, the average of 15 estimates compiled by Bloomberg shows.

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