William Hill sees profits boosted by its growing online business

The company is also on track to boost its online presence with its recommended offer for Sportingbet's Australian and Spanish operations and a move to acquire Playtech's 29% in William Hill Online. It also launched an iPad app in December as well as a number of mobile gaming sites during the second half.

A strong football programme in the period outweighed a number of horse racing cancellations due to the weather. The company's shares have climbed 14.8p to 381.2p following the update, making it the biggest riser in a falling FTSE 250.

Analyst Greg Johnson at Shore Capital said: “The group remains on track to complete the Sportingbet acquisition by the end of the first quarter of 2013 with an announcement on the Playtech minority due at a similar date. We believe that these two prospective deals transform the group's growth profile going forward.

“Following today's update we upgrade our 2012 pretax profit estimate by around us$ 39.2 million to us$ 463.7 million and would expect some modest upgrades to our 2013 estimate of us$ 421.2 million albeit the group faces some headwinds in 2013. We believe that with a fair wind and a completion of the two proposed underlying pro-forma earnings could reach 31p which implies an underlying rating of under 12 times. With the business transforming to an online dominated group we believe a further re-rating is likely. Buy.”