THE online-betting company Betfair will reveal this week it is sitting on a cash pile of £180m which it may raid to return money to investors.

Betfair, which is part-owned by Softbank, the Japanese technology investor, will publish financial results that will show a 30% increase in revenues to £182m.

The figures, for the year to April 2007, will also show that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) were £36m, compared with £40m the previous year.

This is after allowing for a number of one-off expenses such as the acquisition of race-data publisher Timeform and investment to pay for changes in its online poker room. Ebitda before these exceptional items rose to £48m.

Betfair has promised some form of “liquidity event” to allow some of its shareholders, many of whom have been investors since it was formed in 2000, to realise their holdings.

It is not clear what form this will take. Options include a refinancing, bringing in a third-party investor, or a straightforward return of cash. A flotation has been ruled out in the short term.

Softbank took a 23% stake in Betfair in January last year in a deal that valued the company at £1.5 billion. The asking price for the Tote, the state-owned pool-betting service, could fall from the reported £400m previously mooted. The government has asked Price Waterhouse Coopers, the accountant, to provide a fresh valuation after receiving a revised lower offer to buy it from a racing-industry consortium.

The government is evaluating the offer but it is not clear how long this may take.

If the bid is rejected, the Tote is likely to be auctioned off.

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