Amid a world of punting pain thanks to Brexit and Donald Trump's storming of the White House, Australia is proving a bright spot for global betting giants.
On Tuesday night Australian time, Paddy Power Betfair – which owns Sportsbet in Australia – released its fourth quarter trading results in the United Kingdom and it bemoaned "customer friendly" results in politics and sport that cost it £40 million ($66 million).
![President Donald Trump's election has cost the bookies plenty.](/web/20170126105756im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/y/8/y/e/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gty8gb.png/1485345366147.jpg)
"This started with the unexpected US election outcome, which cost the group almost £5 million, and concluded with our European sportsbooks losing money on football bets in the month of December," it told investors.
Despite that – and quarterly revenue coming off about 3 per cent year on year – the group expects profit for last year to be in line with previous guidance at about £400 million, thanks partly to a strong performance from Sportsbet in Australia.
In the fourth quarter Australian stakes growth was up 25 per cent and revenue growth was up 18 per cent in local dollar terms.
The announcement came days after Ladbrokes Coral Group painted a very similar picture for its investors.
It said the group's full-year profit would be about £280 million, also in line with market expectations.
It bemoaned poor sporting results in Britain but still posted 17 per cent revenue growth for its Ladbrokes.com business compared to the 2015 December quarter and 13 per cent growth for Coral.co.uk.
Just like Paddy Power, the group's Australian arm put both of those results in the shade where Ladbrokes net revenue was 45 per cent ahead of the previous year as stakes surged 57 per cent.
"While the sporting gods did not look favourably on us in the period, it is pleasing to report that the business continued to perform well and that our full-year numbers will be in-line with expectations," chief executive Jim Mullen said.
"It has been an encouraging start to the life of Ladbrokes Coral Group plc. Good progress is being made on all the key integration workstreams. We saw continued growth in our digital division with Australia going from strength to strength and further growth in multi-channel sign-up."
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