A £240 million losing streak by a small number of high-roller telephone punters and Britain’s first television advertising campaign by a bookmaker combined to produce a record year for Ladbrokes.

The company, which competes with William Hill for the title of Britain’s biggest bookmaker, said that net revenues from telephone betting had leapt from £45.8 million in 2006 to £279.8 million, with revenues from high-rollers rising twentyfold from £12.2 million to £249.6 million.

While profits from its ordinary telephone account holders fell by a third to £4.6 million, the “handful” of high-roller customers – punters who think nothing of betting £10,000 on a horse – boosted overall telephone profits from £17.3 million to £183.6 million.

Chris Bell, Ladbrokes’s chief executive, refused to say how many high-rollers were involved or where they came from.

However, a year ago, when such gamblers were enjoying a winning streak, he estimated the number at 20 to 30 punters from all over the world.

The company’s full-year results were also boosted by the £5 million television advertising campaign that ran from October to December. The national campaign, which featured football pundits including Ian Wright and Ally McCoist, resulted in a 25 per cent jump in the amount staked on the sport.

Ladbrokes was the first bookmaker to take advantage of the scrapping of the ban on television advertising that came into effect last September. Since then, Skybet and Betfair have followed suit.

The group said it had yet to decide whether to repeat the campaign, although it confirmed it was preparing to launch advertisements promoting its internet bingo and casino businesses costing about £4 million as part of a big push behind its e-gaming division. Like last year’s campaign, they will be devised by M&C Saatchi.

Ladbrokes reported a 46 per cent jump in pretax profits from continuing operations to £352 million, from revenue up 30 per cent to £1.24 billion. Fully diluted earnings per share rose from 20.4p to 46.1p and there is a final dividend of 9.05p, up from 8.6p.

The company’s UK shops suffered in the first half from the absence of a football World Cup and the cancellation of several race meetings because of bad weather. However, a stronger second half saw a 2.9 per cent increase in the like-for-like gross win – the amount left behind by punters.

It said that the strong revenues from telephone high-rollers had continued into the new year, although the rest of the group had also started the year well, with the gross win, excluding high-rollers. up 16 per cent. But Mr Bell cautioned that it was “still early days” as the betting industry braced itself for the Cheltenham Festival and the Grand National meeting.

Ladbrokes, which is developing a presence in Spain, Italy and Asia, said it would shortly be pitching for a sports betting licence in Turkey in partnership with a local firm.

The shares, buoyed recently by stake-building by Joe Lewis, the billionaire investor, shed 8¾p to 317¾p.

Table talk

Campaign title: Café
Stars: Ally McCoist, Ian Wright, Chris Kamara, Lee Dixon, Kirsty Gallacher and Jimmy Hill
Cost: £5m
Agency: M&C Saatchi
Duration: Oct-Dec 2007
Channels: ITV1, ITV4, Sky Sports 2,Sky Sports
Extra Strapline: “Everyone’s got an opinion; what’s yours worth?”
Target: 18-34 year-old casual gamblers

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