Press Release

‘A year of building momentum leaves us well placed for future growth’

Betfair (LSE:BET), the world’s biggest betting community and one of the world’s leading online betting and gaming operators, today announces its audited results for the 12 months ended 30 April 2012.

Group summary

Financial highlights

• Core Betfair³ revenue growth of 10% in H2 results in full year revenue up 6% to £349.5 million
• Core Betfair adjusted EBITDA up 15% to £92.1 million
• Core Betfair adjusted EBITDA margin up 2.1ppts to 26.4%
• Group underlying earnings per share up 21% to 41.1 pence per share ²
• Final dividend up 19% to 7.0 pence per share to give a full year dividend of 10.2 pence per share
• Completed £50 million share buyback in the year

Operational highlights

• Good exchange performance: Non-risk sports revenue up 11% in FY12
• Mobile driving growth: 44 million bets (up 122%) and £22.7 million of revenue (up 97%)
• Technology re-architecture and data centre consolidation completed allowing focus on new products
• Next generation sports products launched, including ‘fixed odds’ bets, which will drive future growth
• Strong current trading: Core Betfair revenue up 18% in the last 8 weeks

Commenting on the results, Stephen Morana, Betfair’s Interim Chief Executive Officer, said:

“We have delivered double-digit net gaming revenue growth in Core Betfair in each of the last three quarters and a healthy increase in profits. We have also started to deliver on our strategic objectives, including the launch of important new products that will drive future growth.

“Our unique Betting Exchange has continued to be the main driver of growth this year, with contributions from all major sports. Betfair has achieved many new highs, with records set in most of the major sporting events including the Champions League final, Cheltenham festival, Wimbledon, US Masters and Indian Premier League. The Exchange has continued to deliver market leading odds and this has been the focus of our marketing message in recent months.

“Mobile betting has been a key feature of the year for the industry and our substantial investment in the channel has given us a clear product advantage. The increasing penetration of smartphones and the convenience of the channel for customers have led to strong growth in mobile usage and revenues. In April alone, customers placed over 6 million mobile bets and almost 50% of UK & Ireland actives used the channel. We are making further enhancements to our mobile exchange betting product and have recently broadened our offering to include sports multiples and casino games on mobile.

“We have now completed the major re-architecture of our technology platform, which allows the introduction of new customer facing products and has enabled substantial improvements to our website. Most recently, we have commenced the rollout of our next generation sports products, which integrate our risk product with the Exchange to create a one-stop shop for sports betting.

“FY13 has started well, with Core Betfair revenue up 18% in the first 8 weeks against the prior year, driven by the European Championships and a return to historical margin levels in risk products, as well as the continued success of our value led marketing campaign and further mobile growth. New products and the opening up of new geographies leave us well placed for future growth. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to lead the business in this interim period and would like to thank all employees for their support. We look forward to Breon joining us on 1 August.”

1. Excluding exceptional items and equity settled share-based payments
2. Underlying figures are stated after making a number of adjustments in order to aid comparability between periods. These adjustments involve the exclusion, where relevant, of: the revenue and EBITDA from the High rollers segment; exceptional items; equity settled share-based payments; profit on sale of financial asset; net foreign exchange gain; and the associated tax effect of these adjustments.
3. Core Betfair excludes Betfair US, LMAX and Betfair Australia

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Webcast

There will be a live webcast of the results presentation at 9.30 a.m. BST. Please pre-register for access to the webcast by visiting the group website (http://corporate.betfair.com). A copy of the webcast and slide presentation given at the meeting will be available on the Group’s website later today.

About Betfair

Betfair is the world’s biggest betting community and one of the world’s leading online betting and gaming operators.

At the heart of Betfair is its pioneering Betting Exchange, where customers come together in order to bet at odds set by themselves or offered by other customers, instead of with a traditional bookmaker. The Betting Exchange provides customers with better pricing and more choice and flexibility than competing products, which has resulted in Betfair’s customers showing greater levels of loyalty than its competitors with significantly higher customer satisfaction rates.

Betfair additionally offers a range of other sports betting products, casino games and poker. As at 30 April 2012, Betfair had over 4 million registered customers worldwide and processed, on average, more than 7 million transactions per day on the Betting Exchange.

Betfair also owns Betfair US, which comprises TVG (a licensed US horseracing wagering and television broadcasting business) and LMAX, which operates a financial trading platform which has evolved from Betfair’s exchange platform technology. In addition, Betfair has a 50% holding in Betfair Australia, a joint venture which operates a licensed betting exchange business in Australia.

The Betfair Group employs more than 2,000 people and has twice been named the UK’s ‘Company of the Year’ by the Confederation of British Industry and has won two Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, being recognised for Innovation in 2003 and most recently for International Trade in 2008.

Disclaimer

This announcement has been prepared solely to provide information to meet the relevant requirements of the UK Listing Authority’s Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

This announcement does not constitute or form part of any offer or invitation to sell or issue, or any solicitation of any offer to purchase or subscribe for any securities of Betfair Group plc (“Betfair”). Neither this announcement nor the fact of its distribution constitutes a recommendation regarding any securities.

Certain statements, beliefs and opinions contained in this announcement, particularly those regarding the possible or assumed future financial or other performance of Betfair, industry growth or other trend projections are or may be forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms “believes”, “estimates”, “anticipates”, “expects”, “intends”, “plans”, “goal”, “target”, “aim”, “may”, “will”, “would”, “could” or “should” or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future and may be beyond Betfair's ability to control or predict. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. No representation is made that any of these statements or forecasts will come to pass or that any forecast result will be achieved.

Neither Betfair, nor any of its associates or directors, officers or advisers, provides any representation, assurance or guarantee that the occurrence of the events expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements in this announcement will actually occur. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Other than in accordance with its legal or regulatory obligations (including under the UK Listing Rules and the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the Financial Services Authority), Betfair is not under any obligation and Betfair expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

No statement in this announcement is intended as a profit forecast or a profit estimate and no statement in this announcement should be interpreted to mean that earnings per Betfair share for the current or future financial years would necessarily match or exceed the historical published earnings per Betfair share.

Certain data in this announcement, including financial, statistical and operating information, has been rounded. As a result of such rounding, the totals of data presented in this announcement may vary slightly from the actual arithmetic totals of such data. Percentages in tables have been rounded and accordingly may not add up to 100%.