The spread betting company reported the annual results for the year ended May 31, showing a 25% increase in turnover at £62.3m, while earnings rose 40% at £35.1m and pre-tax profit was up 77% at £14m.
The sports businesses, including spread betting and bynary betting, delivered turnover of £6.8m, only £45,000 higher than 2004, while the underlying profit fell from £1.447m to £921,000.
“IG has delivered significant growth in turnover and profits for a third consecutive year, reflecting healthy client acquisition, the continuing expansion of our product range and the rapid growth of our Australian business. Current trading is strong and the Group is well placed to make further progress during the coming year,” said Nat le Roux, IG Group Chief Executive.
Le Roux said that spread betting is showing signs of having reached a peak and the company is pinning its future sporting hopes on binary betting, considered a worthwhile alternative to betting exchanges.
As IG Group intends to simplify and re-brand the sports binary offering to widen its appeal to a mass audience, both in the UK and internationally, le Roux has appealed to Racing Post readers to come up with a new name for binary betting.
“People tend to associate binary betting with the financial market and a 0-100 index, but in the sports area we offer back-and-lay facilities on a wide variety of markets, particularly in running, so we need a new name to distinguish it,” he said.
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