Bookmaker William Hill told shareholders at its AGM that for the 20-week period ended 16 May 2006, mixed results in January and February were offset by favourable results from March onwards.

The company cited the Cheltenham Festival and the Grand National as having “good” and “excellent” results respectively, while football benefited from “above average” results.

A spokesman for William Hill said: “The group is well positioned to take advantage of the busy sporting programme this year that should result in record levels of turnover around events such as the football World Cup”.