SOURCE: Reuters

(London, England) — Bookmaker William Hill said a run of high profile [soccer] upsets, buying Stanley Leisure's betting shops and customers gambling on roulette video game machines helped bump up its 2006 profits.

The country's biggest bookmaker posted a 19 percent increase in annual core profit on Monday to 292.2 million pounds from 245 million a year earlier and said it was comfortable with analysts' average 2007 core profit forecast of 297 million pounds.

The bookmaker added that its gross win in the nine weeks to February 27 had increased by 11 percent and said its expansion plans in Spain and Italy, in conjunction with joint-venture partner Codere, were coming along.

Chief Executive David Harding said the firm had set aside up to 10 million pounds to spend on Spanish and Italian expansion following recent relaxation of gambling laws in both countries. "I think we are only going to look at about 6 million to 10 million pounds this year on the international front," he said.

"Each region of Spain that deregulates we will commit around 10 million euros. In Italy we (William HIll and Codere) have committed to 10 million euros each, but that might go up slightly if there are opportunities to grow faster," Harding told reporters.

Through the joint venture William Hill holds 55 licences in Italy while analysts expect three or four regions of Spain will relax gambling regulations following Madrid's recent decision to do so Harding also batted away speculation the firm was interested in buying bingo and casino operator Rank.

"It's not on the agenda," he told reporters.

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