Arena Leisure has turned a 2001 operating loss of £1.8m into a profit of £4m on turnover up 23 per cent to £32.7m - according to the company's preliminary results for the year end 31 December 2002.

However, planned losses from its attheraces digital television channel, a joint venture with BSkyB and Channel 4 launched in May 2002, of £11.1m mean the group ended the year with a pre-tax loss of £6.9m, compared with £6.2m in 2001.

In 2002, the major development for Arena was reaching an agreement with bookmakers to show live racing in betting shops for a fixed payment of £4,000 per race. This is expected to result in additional revenue of £4m a year.

The company is now awaiting the outcome of an inquiry into the structure of horseracing being carried out by the Office of Fair Trading and also the government's White Paper on the deregulation of gaming following the Budd Report.

Alongside its financial results, Arena has announced it is to build Europe's first racino - a casino at a racecourse - at its Wolverhampton site. The racino, which will be operated by Gala Group, will incorporate a sports bar and will have views over the racecourse.

Arena will also be doubling the number of rooms at Wolverhampton's on-site Holiday Inn hotel.

Ian Penrose, group managing director, said: 'This has been another significant year for Arena Leisure and we are seeing the benefits of our investments and major partnerships. We remained Britain's busiest independent racecourse operator, staging 1,661 races in front of a total of 420,000 visitors.' Details: Type 'Racino' into the search engine on www.leisureopportunities.co.uk