LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in Paddy Power PLC dropped 7.6% Tuesday after it said that it expects to achieve low to mid single-digit percentage profit growth in 2013, around EUR11 million lower than the mid-point of guidance given at its interim results.
The betting and gaming company said that although its underlying performance had been good, sports results has been unfavourable in the period from July 1 to November 17.
Sports results remained poor, Paddy Power said, reducing its gross win compared to its normal expectations by around EUR10 million.
In the company's online division, its paddypower.com business has performed well despite strengthening competition in the UK ahead of the imposition of a new 15% point-of-consumption tax on gross profits from online betting customers in the UK from December 2014.
Paddy Power said its Australian business grew its online revenue by 30% as the company increased its investment in people, marketing assets and products.
Paddy Power expects to launch a group of in-house developed mobile products in the coming months, and said that it had seen a 10% increase in its combined number of social network fans, including Facebook fans and Twitter followers, over the last two months to 1.9 million.
In the company's retail division revenue grew by 6% as it opened 46 shops in the year to date.
Shares in Paddy Power were trading down 7.6% at 57.76 pence Tuesday afternoon.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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