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Despite a strong 4Q margin in the UK, gross win margin of 8% was flat year-on-year as the portfolio of countries we now operate in reduced the benefit from the UK. And this resulted in net revenue being 3% down.

Gaming net revenue is up 36% year-on-year due to the inclusion of Mr Green, and on a pro forma basis, was down 1% year-on-year. Again, due to the impact of the enhanced customer due diligence measures and those regulatory impacts that I just described. Cost of sales increased following the inclusion of Mr Green and the change in remote gaming duty in the UK, the rate going from 15% to 21% in April. This cost £13 million in the year. And the impact will annualize in Q1 2020.

Mr Green delivered £4 million of synergies and an £8 million benefit following the harmonization of accounting policies. Under our policies, depreciation associated with acquired intangible assets is treated as in adjusted items and not in underlying earnings. In spite of these benefits, operating costs increased 19%, due to inflation and the inclusion of Mr Green. Mr Green synergies will annualize at £6 million, and the accounting benefit will be maintained. This has resulted in an adjusted operating profit of £118.8 million.

The KPI slide, again, is presented on a pro forma basis to help with the comparators. And we've also now split out the UK and international as we're following slightly different strategies. As I said at the half year, in the UK, we're optimizing the balance between acquisition and yield. And as we trade over the World Cup, which had a focus on customer acquisition. We'd expect actives to be down with higher ARPU, in line with our focus on yield in 2019. So actually, for us, this is a pleasing trend.

And we'll continue to assess the balance between acquisition and yield to drive the right performance in the UK. And we are pleased to report that we've now seen 3 quarters of consecutive growth in the UK, which provides encouragement that our relentless focus on customer metrics is beginning to pay dividends. Our customer satisfaction scores have improved by nearly 40% since the middle of last year, with an upward trend seen across the year.

Moving to International. We've adopted a slightly more traditional approach to focus on active and strongly growing markets, and you'll see they grew 2%, in spite of the regulatory impacts in the number of countries. Again, we see that as encouraging. And this also demonstrates our ability to operate our business according to the dynamics of the individual market, bid yield or acquisition. The new KPI on this page is marketing as a percentage of revenue. A key focus for us, as we look to optimize our marketing spend by using data-driven decision making to be more targeted and relevant to our customers. The launch of our smart data platform, which is already being used in the U.S. will further enhance this capability and supports our desire to create assets that benefit the entire group.

So as we turn to retail, it really has been a year of unprecedented change. Now Nicola stood up at the half year and told you about how our "Do it once, do it right approach" And that's exactly what she and the team have done. We talk about executing well in a year of transition. What the retail team have done was a master class in this. We believed it then and we still believe this was the right approach, and the Retail business can now focus on serving its customers.

So today, let me just talk about like-for-like performance, because I think this is the most telling. Sportsbook amounts wagered were up 6% year-on-year, primarily in greyhounds, but also in what we call other sports, so rugby, cricket and U.S. sports. Now this increase is due to a mix of substitution from gaming, the retention of customers from our closed shops and the capture of customers from competitor shops.

Gross win margin of 18.5% is up 0.3 percentage points year-on-year, primarily due to strong margins in Q4. This delivered around a £6 million benefit over normalized margins. So please take this out in your 2020 thinking. Gaming net revenue was down 30% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis following the implementation of the stake limit, which isn't unsurprising. And was better than on a statutory basis as the shops more likely to be closed are those that are heavily dependent on gaming and less impacted by the stake limit.

Operating costs were down 9% year-on-year following the closure of the 713 shops in September. And adjusted operating profit was, therefore, £83 million for the year. Now this is ahead of our previously guided range of £50 million to £70 million. But it has benefited from both the Q4 Sportsbook margin and a £7 million rental charge, which is treated as exceptional following the half year impairment that the shops traded for an additional quarter, so this won't repeat.

And finally, on Retail. I want to highlight the cash it still generates of £71 million after paying for its capital and shop closure costs, which is an important contribution to the group and reinforces what I said at the Capital Markets Day, about running Retail for cash. The KPIs on this slide. I'll present it on a year-over-year basis for the 1,568 shops trading at the end of 2019. Hopefully, to help you understand the retail business going forward. We've seen a consistent adoption of customers to our proprietary SSBT since their launch. And this has continued in 2019 with a 15% growth year-on-year. We've increased our density by relocating SSBTs and close shops in order to satisfy customer demand.

Now we have from April 1, seen a decline in the machine weekly average from our gaming machines. Although the impact has not been as great as originally modeled as customers have adapted their playing behaviors to the changes. We won't really know where these metrics will normalize until probably the back end of this year, when we've lapped the £2 stake limit and the closure of our shops. And we also see what the rest of the industry does. My favorite slide. I'm going to take a little bit of time to explain this for those who are new or even those of you who've seen it before. There are various operating models in the U.S., you can be an operator.

So you operate the Sportsbook and you manage the cash. You could be a service provider. You provide trading expertise to create prices and manage risk, but the casino operator actually manages the Sportsbook and manages the cash and lottery. And similar to the service provider sort of model, but the state lottery is counter party and the only legal provider. Every state can then regulate any combination of Retail, tethered mobile, i.e., you have to register in the casino or remote registration mobile. We support all these variants and we're one of the few that can. So Nevada, we were an operator and the status of Retail and tethered mobile.

In New Jersey, we have operator contracts and the state has regulated Retail and remote registration mobile. In Rhode Island, we support the lottery and it has Retail and mobile. In Mississippi, we are a service provider. And currently, the state is only Retail.

In terms of accounting, we recall -- we record handle from operator contracts in wagering. And revenue for service providers are in a line called service provider revenue. So it's only on this slide that you see all of the wagering added up rather than in the statutory accounts. So the sort of points I would highlight here, we took £2.9 billion of handle across all these variants, £1.6 billion from Nevada and £1.3 billion from the expansion states. 55% of the £2.9 billion was taken on mobile. If you look at Nevada, we take 69% of our revenue comes from mobile. Now this demonstrates that the market adoption is ultimately going to be mobile, which supports the investment that we've made in our proprietary technology platform and our recent media partnership with CBS Sports.

And our market share in the states we operate in is 25%. And across all the regulated states, it is 24%. So again, my favorite data point. William Hill takes 1 in 4 bets in the U.S.

Turning to the P&L, all shown in dollars. Here, again, I show existing expansion retail and expansion online, to demonstrate how the retail part of the business gets to profit in year one. And the underlying -- continued underlying strength of our Nevada business, both of which help us to fund our U.S. expansion. This is the last time I will give you this split. And at the half year, the U.S. will be reported as a single unit.

Amounts wagered were up 39% across the board as we entered new states, with the existing Nevada being 14% up year-on-year, the seventh year of double-digit growth. Gross win margins were within normalized ranges and through disciplined investment in our expansion states and strong results in Q4, the U.S. as a whole was broadly breakeven for the year.

Now I do need to remind you that these results include the income from the skins deal Eldorado agreed with the Stars Group. Under our agreement with Eldorado, we are entitled to ongoing rev share from income Eldorado receive as a result of any third-party skins deal, they agree. With the Stars Group, the first tranche of this was in the form of equity. Going forward, the rev share will be influenced by the performance of third-party skins, and we'd then anticipate low single-digit net wins.

Okay. So on to the cash flow statement. As I said at the half year, this is a primary focus for the group, given the numerous opportunities we have to invest within our U.S. and international businesses, and we have to balance that against the regulatory landscape in which we operate.

So walking through this. Profit is down as we've just discussed. Depreciation up following IFRS 16, where we now capitalize leases. Cash exceptional working capital has improved £30 million due to our focus on this and a number of management actions. The net outflow from capital and investing receipts is the acquisition of Mr Green against the inflow in the prior year of the sale of Australia and NYX. Net capital expenditure of £88 million is down through an increased focus on capital discipline and offset by proceeds from some asset disposals.

The dividend number represents the 2018 final dividend and the 2019 half year at the 8p underpin. Bond refinancing is the net of the refinancing of the new £350 million bond and the redemption of the previous bond, and the remainder of which is due in 2020. And finally, the IFRS 16 lease principal payments of £47 million of the rental cash flows, primarily for the rent, Retail shops.

So what does this all mean for guidance? Online will continue to grow, assuming a steady regulatory landscape. We expect the UK to maintain market share in a low single-digit growth market. The remote gaming duty impact will continue into Q1, annualizing in April. The recently announced credit card ban in the UK is anticipated to have between £5 million to £10 million impact on profits in 2020. And in our international markets, we expect them to grow at high single digits of the blended portfolio.

Retail remains within the profit range communicated at the Capital Markets Day, albeit we have tied them to in the range to £60 million to £70 million. As we gain more clarity over the cost to exit closed shops and income from disposals, I'd like to note that the previous guidance of £40 million to £60 million cash costs for retail, which we did indicate was at the upper end of the range at the half year, I think is now more likely to be around £70 million.

In the U.S., we anticipate continued strong revenue growth from the states we operate in. And the overall U.S. business to around breakeven based on those states. Profits from the Cantor sports books will be reinvested in the U.S., and we think a further 8 states will potentially regulate and go live in 2020. We continue to monitor the Eldorado-Caesars Deal and anticipate it closing in the first half, with access to their sports books on the second half. And as we said at the half year, we anticipate £20 million to £30 million EBITDA from those sports books within 3 years.

On the regulatory front, our commitment to safer gambling will see our contribution to the voluntary levy increased from 0.1% of UK gross gambling yield to, from 0.1% rather to 1% in 2023. It is staggered. Next year, the contribution is 0.25%, which we anticipate an additional cost of £2 million.

he effective tax rate for 2020 is expected to be around 9%. And this is due to the mix of revenues from the countries we now operate in. And we'll continue to focus on capital discipline across the group. And so CapEx will be about £100 million, which is broadly flat year-on-year. And finally, net debt-to-EBITDA will remain above the 1 time to 2 times long-term guidance in 2020. It remains an important focus for the group as we continue to invest in growth.

And with that, Ulrik.

Ulrik Bengtsson

Thank you, Ruth. So before I get into the operational review of 2019 and strategy going forward, I wanted to give you a brief overview of where I think we stand as a group right now.

Starting with regulation and safer gambling. In our industry, there are and there will always be regulatory challenges that we need to lean into. It's no different from how it's been since the beginning of this industry's time. But the industry is mobilizing. We are collaborating around protecting customers in a way that we probably haven't seen before. It's a really good step forward, and I think provides a good ground for what we have in front of us. For our Online business in the UK, we maintained market share in the year.

Our brand has been strengthened and our product has been enhanced throughout the year. For our international business, we now have more of the capabilities we think we need to be able to grow that business in the years to come. Retail. We talked about that a lot. It's still adjusting to the new normal. But we do see some encouraging changes in customer behavior that gives us reason to be carefully optimistic about that business as well. And for the U.S., clearly now, we have many of the building blocks in place to build that business and grow it for the next few years.

So all in all, I'm really excited about the position we're in and we have a lot of good opportunities. But I do recognize that we also have challenges, and we have a lot more work ahead of us. So let's talk about 2019 and some of the highlights for that year. During 2019, obviously, we had to navigate through numerous regulatory changes, both in the UK and across Europe and also some opportunities when it comes to regulation in the U.S. I think it's safe to say that the industry hasn't always done all it can to protect customers in the best possible way. But there has been an enormous amount of progress in the last 1 to 2 years.

And one of the examples of that is the whistle to whistle ban, which we launched ahead of the football season this year, which has reduced the number of underage people exposed to gambling advertising by 97%. That's real progress and is a really important piece in our plans moving forward. And for the more long term, we are engaging with the House of Lords Select Committee. We're engaging with government. And I was at the House of Lords Committee myself just a few weeks ago, giving, again, evidence. I think, my overwhelming feeling coming out of that session was that there is real interest in a sensible- and evidence-based review of the 2005 Gambling Act, which we support.

We remain very committed to protecting our customers and we've signed up to the Safer Gambling Commitments. And not only that, we've also been a leading player in the creation of the new industry body, the betting and gambling council. We made significant investments in tools, processes, training and personnel throughout the year and we will continue to do so. We provide an incredibly powerful connection to sport. And through that, the way for friends to engage between themselves and with the sport. Sharing your betting activities, tips, insights, winnings and losses is a really important part of millions of people's leisure activity. We are very proud as a company to be able to provide that service.

In 2019, we sharpened our brand proposition to play to this connection. If you're a group of friends, William Hill is simply who you play with. We are the number one brand in the UK for brand awareness. In the heart of everything we do is the product. There is very few examples of successful companies that don't have good products. We have made a huge amount of progress also in the area of product. And this makes me a little bit extra proud because it's been such a big part of my previous job here at William Hill.

During the year, we launched a new bets set -- new bets set management functionality. We have improved speed, navigation and search all across our sites. And these things has been paramount when it comes to us retaining market share in the UK market. We've also been able to execute two of the largest technology projects that this company has ever seen in the launch of the technology platform for our U.S. business and in the migration of the legacy Mobenga Sportsbook product that we have had in our international business in favor for our own proprietary front end. Both of those things gives our U.S. and our international business good platforms for future growth.

Continuous product development is a really important part of our strategy going forward. Mr Green was much more than a bolt-on acquisition. What it gave us was the hub to run our international business from. Now what is a hub? You might ask. So to me how is people and its capabilities. So for the first time ever, William Hill now have a focused entity with the right capabilities to drive and run our international business out of. The integration has been completed successfully, and we've managed to retain a lot of that entrepreneurial culture that made Mr Green so successful throughout the years. One example of what this hub ultimately gives us is the launch of William Hill in Sweden, which we managed to do in three months. That's the first international launch that we have done outside of the U.S. since 2011.

35% of our online revenue is now coming from international markets. And we do have an ambition for that number to grow. We talked a lot about Retail. But what we did in Retail in 2019 was really to give our people certainty. We also enabled that business to look forward. We see some changes in customer behavior, which is really encouraging. And we have a good track record in retail to launch new products like our SSBTs, and we will continue to trial new products and customer offerings for that business. It's also important to make a point of that it's -- our retail presence is a really important pillar in our efforts to maintain our number one brand awareness.

We had, in the U.S., we have had 7 consecutive years of strong growth. During 2019, we added a staggering $1 billion in wagering in the country. 60% of that coming through mobile. We now have a 24% national market share. And the CAGR since we set up that business up in 2012 of 35%. Needless to say, I'm very happy with how our U.S. business is evolving.

Can you tick the next slide for me because I have a slight hiccup here?

There you go. Good. Thank you. We're also very clear on what the building blocks are for our U.S. business going forward and how we're going to continue to build this business. Product and technology is, obviously key as it is for the rest of our business as well. We launched our prepared technology platform. And it gives us control over the customer experience in the U.S. market, which is really important. We have unmatched market access and access to 24 states through our various partnerships, most notably Eldorado.

That includes New York and California and Florida. We are, as we speak, preparing to take over the Caesars and Cantor Sportsbook upon the receipt of regulatory approval. We have the most experienced team on the ground, and we just recently built a digital hub as well in New Jersey to continue to build that business. We have a proven track record of rolling out new states as they go live. And finally, the announcement of the deal with CBS, just a few months ago gives us a new component to help us acquire customers more efficiently and also build our brand.

On that, I'm sure you're all curious to hear a little bit about CBS. For those of you who don't know CBS, it's the second largest sports property in the U.S. It reaches 80 million users per month. And it has one of the largest sports fantasy platforms and databases in the world. What we will be able to do is have exclusive access to that database for us to acquire customers. And we'll also get deep integrated, integration with our products into the CBS digital properties to help us drive both awareness and customer acquisition.

So I've been with the company now for 2 years, 6 months as the CEO. And during this time, I have engaged with plenty of people from all across the company in the U.S., Malta, Gibraltar where we have offices. And today, I want to take a chance to talk to you about some of my ideas on how we are going to deliver on our ambitions going forward. We have set out to be digitally-led international diverse, betting and gaming company of scale. Nothing of that changes. It's still our ambition. I know there's been a lot of questions on what am I going to do differently at William Hill. I also know that many of you want a very simple answer to that question.

What I would like to say to all of you is that what William Hill needs is the customer-driven, joined-up effective approach in getting the job done. For me, that means focusing on 3 things: it's customer, it's team and it's the execution. And when we bring that down, it really comes down to 5 operational priorities. And I would now like you to sort of take you down into the engine room and go through those operational priorities in a bit of detail.

So this is the engine room, if you will. And let's start with the first one, the most important one, customer. So I think it's been well documented that William Hill has had historically challenges around product and technology. We've done a lot of progress, as I mentioned before, in 2019. And we will continue to have the relentless focus on customer and product. And we have a very clear idea of what the drivers for us within our product is to drive a competitive customer offering and give you some flavors of that.

So the moment that matters to the customer, the basics, registration, deposits, withdrawals, there's a huge amount of focus going into making sure that all of those are top-notch. And the big focus on site speed and the performance of our sites, we are believers in increased personalization in as many journeys as possible. We also believe it is a radically simplified gaming experience. And we do believe in innovation where it matters to the customer and increase velocity of our product development. And all of these things are things that we have a huge amount of focus on at the moment.

The second part of this is team. So we're really nothing without our people. It's a really important part of the company. We want to have a truly agile and collaborative team across the group. And we, to get that, we are investing in talent and culture and agile ways of working. We're also working with our operating model to make sure it's efficient and fit for purpose. Just recently, we announced 2 new roles. The first one, Chief Technology and Product Officer, is a role that has been, where we had appointed Satty Bhens, a former partner and leader of McKinsey Digital Labs. Satty is in the room here today.

So Satty will get this end-to-end responsibility for technology and product across the group, something we haven't really had at William Hill before. And we anticipate that to have a good impact. The second role, which is yet not filled is a Chief Operating Officer, which will roll up all of those center of excellences that we want to be able to use across the group, whether it's trading, customer operations, risk, fraud, et cetera. And we will continue to enhance and change our operating model to make sure we are set up for collaboration and execution going forward.

The third part. We talked about customer. We talked about team. And the third part is then the execution. It's really 3 components to execution. First one is revenue growth. And this is not an attempt to give you any forecast, it's simply an operational priority for the group. Obviously, in the business we are in, revenue growth is really important. And we have a set of strategies in place for each of our divisions on how to get to this. So in the online business for UK, it's very much about share of wallet, increasing yields from our customer and using the data we have in a much more efficient way, both when it comes to acquisition, but also to generate that yield. When it comes to the online international business, it's much more traditional growth strategy, selected investments in markets we think have opportunities. And also capitalize on some of the product investments we did in those markets last year, most notably, Spain and Italy. And in the U.S., like I said, we're very clear on what the components are for continued growth in that business.