Listed bookmaker Paddy Power yesterday predicted that operating profits for 2007 will hit €58 million. In a statement issued at its annual general meeting (agm) in Dublin, chairman Fintan Drury said it had benefited from favourable sporting results over the first 20 weeks of the year.

"The group now expects operating profit of approximately €58 million in 2007, assuming those sporting results are not offset by an unfavourable run over the remainder of the year, and continued turnover growth in line with our expectations," he said. "This result would represent underlying operating profit growth compared to 2006 of approximately 27 per cent or 8 per cent above the current consensus market forecast."

The favourable trading for Paddy Power means its customers are losing more money than expected. Mr Drury said this had resulted in a slowdown in turnover growth during the 20 weeks to May 15th. However, he said that gross win, the difference between the amount staked and the amount returned on winning bets, was ahead of expectations.

Shareholders approved a motion tabled at the agm that will allow Paddy Power to buy back up to 10 per cent of its stock. The group proposes to buy back the stock as a way of returning cash to shareholders. It revealed details of its plan when it announced its 2006 results in March.

At the end of last year, Paddy Power had €87.1 million in cash. It has been criticised in the past for holding on to cash and not returning it to shareholders, although the company has always maintained that it needed these resources to fund development and expansion.

In March, chief executive Patrick Kennedy said the board believed it had enough money to fund expansion and to return some cash to shareholders. It will announce the scale and timing of any buy back it is proposing to carry out in 2007 later this year.

The group is gearing up to launch a new spread-betting service that will focus on equities, commodities and indices.

Paddy Power recently signed an estimated €1 million a year deal with Turf TV for live coverage of racing from a number of leading British race tracks. The courses have broken away from the existing Satellite Information Systems (SIS) service that has been supplying betting shops with live pictures and data since the 1980s.

Many of its competitors, including UK chains, Ladbrokes and William Hills, are blacking the service on the grounds that it will result in extra costs.

Mr Kennedy said yesterday that it was too soon to say if the move was having an impact on turnover.