Betfred sales rise 30% to £3.5bn

BETFRED, the North West betting shop business built up by Fred Done, grew sales from £2.7bn to £3.5bn last year, newly filed accounts reveal.

Betfred, which is one of the contenders to the state-owned bookmaker The Tote, said pre-exceptional operating profits in the year to the end of March last year were unchanged at £12m.

Figures for parent company Lightcatch – which includes the BetFred business and Sports Tours International, a specialist tour operator – reveal that after £12m in exceptional items, the business made operating profits of £79,000 compared with £9.7m in 2009.

The bulk of the exceptional costs, £10.2m in total, related  to “provisions against property-related loans”, while a further £1.7m was related to the closure of some poorly performing betting shops.

Despite some closures, in the year Befred grew its stores portfolio from 791 to 832. It said the business had continued to benefit from the operation of fixed-odds betting terminals, while a tight rein had been kept on overheads. Staff numbers at Warrington-based company grew to 2,951 from 2,684 during the year.