nd Ireland sportsbook operator Paddy Power Betfair has revealed that revenue for the first half of 2017 has increased by 9% year-on-year.

The company will be delighted with the H1 figures, as will new CEO Peter Jackson who took the helm this week. These strong growth figures should help steady investors' nerves following a brief dip in share price after the announcement of his new tenure.

The 9% increase in revenue to £827m was said to be ‘driven by good stakes growth’ in a period which saw the company's online revenues up 10% (15% excluding Euro 2016) and its Australia market also performing strongly recording 16% growth.

EBITDA, for the full year underlying, including £15m of losses in DRAFT, was expected to be between £445m and £465m. That rounds off an EBITDA margin up 3% to 27%.

Shareholders will rejoice at the news of share earnings increasing from this time last year, with underlying performance results showing shares rising from 147.0p to 181.1p (+23%).

Breon Corcoran, former Chief Executive, commented: "We continue to make substantial investments to position Paddy Power Betfair as a structural winner in a dynamic and highly competitive market. The focus of this investment is to use technology to improve efficiency and minimise the cost of servicing our customers and to further enhance our customer proposition.

"The integration of our technology platforms is on track for completion by the end of the year and will bring significant benefits including increased quantity and pace of new product development in 2018 and beyond.

"Ahead of that, our customers and shareholders are already seeing benefits from efficiencies and investments. In the first half alone, customers enjoyed approximately £30m of extra value through better odds, more generous offers and new loyalty benefits. Operating efficiency and the annualisation of merger-related cost savings resulted in strong operating leverage in the period, with operating profit up 22%."