Britain's largest bookmaker William Hill has posted a 12% fall in first-half operating profit, weighed down by increased machine games duty and a new tax on bets made online by its British-based customers.
The group, which has around 2,300 British shops and operations online in Australia, the US and Europe, said its operating profit was £155.7m for the 26-weeks to 30 June, down from £176.9m a year earlier.
Group revenue was almost flat at £808.1m, with online growth of 7%.
In a separate statement, William Hill said it had acquired 29.4% of NeoGames, an online lottery software and services provider, for $25m.
William Hill had operated a network of retail bookmakers in Ireland until 2011, when it sold its stores to Boyle Sports.
