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By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated: 05:15 EST, 19 October 2009

A turnaround in sporting results in recent weeks came too late to prevent bookmaker William Hill online business from missing targets.

A barren run of football results impacted the industry at the start of the season but William Hill said margins returned to historic trends in the latter part of September and early October.

Full-year expectations for the company's retail arm remain broadly unchanged, helped by reduced costs and higher-than-expected turnover, but the company warned its online arm would not be able to make up the shortfall.

Recent favourable results have boosted William Hill

Rival bookmaker Ladbrokes said recently that operating profits were down 58 per cent due to the low incidence of draws and high number of wins recorded by favourites such as Chelsea and Manchester United.

While this also hit William Hill, the chain said turnover in its retail arm was only down 4 per cent as a result of punters recycling their winnings. The turnover figure was down 11 per cent in the previous six month period.

A strong performance from gaming machines meant the retail arm's gross win - the amount of money left by losing punters - was 11 per cent lower in the third quarter.

And despite the margin pressure, William Hill said its online arm continued to make good progress with revenues up 56 per cent in the third quarter.

Chief executive Ralph Topping said: 'Business volumes both in our shops and online since the beginning of the football season in mid-August have been good with strong turnover in our online sportsbook and encouraging levels of recycling in retail.'

The company has more than 2,300 betting offices in the UK and Ireland, while its online arm provides sports betting, casino games, poker and bingo.