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• Bookmaker blames favourites coming in in March
• Profit from high rollers continues to decline

Favourite Kauto Star's victory at the Cheltenham Gold Cup and other punter-friendly results have triggered a fall in profits at Ladbrokes.

Profits at Britain's biggest bookmaker dropped 34% in the four months to end April, it reported this morning. Ladbrokes blamed the "abnormal" gross win margin in March and an increase in free bets offered to new customers. It added that this rate of decline has not continued, with May returning to "more normal trends".

Gross win – the amount left by losing punters – was flat over the period across the group, and down 4% in the UK. The gross win margin fell to 17.5% from 17.7% a year ago.

The Cheltenham race was one of a number of results falling in favour of gamblers.

"March proved to be highly profitable for many of our customers, particularly at the Cheltenham Festival," the company said. Since then, gross win has increased by 5%, benefiting from the victory of 100–1 outsider Mon Mome in the Grand National.

But profit from high rollers – punters who will place a five-figure sum on a single wager – continued to decline, possibly as a result of the financial crisis. It fell to £25m over the four-month period from £40m a year ago. Since the beginning of May, Ladbrokes has made a further £17m profit from high rollers.

Chris Bell, the chief executive, said: "While it is difficult to predict future staking levels in the current economic climate, the general resilience of our business and strong cost control gives us confidence in the outturn for the full year."

Shares in Ladbrokes fell more than 6% this morning, losing 14p to 210.5p

• Ladbrokes
• Gambling

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