Online betting company Betfair said the football World Cup helped boost customer numbers over the year by 52% to 1.7 million. Ebitda rose 32% to £120.2m. The proposed full year dividend is up 70% to 34p. Shares fell 3.9% to 2,416p.

Breon Corcoran, chief executive, said: 

“FY15 has been an excellent year for Betfair. We are successfully executing our strategy and achieving profitable scale in sustainable markets. Our investments are working, the business now operates at pace and our people have a strong will to win.

“The financial year started with the World Cup, which allowed us to engage with many new and existing customers and gain trading momentum. This carried on throughout the rest of the year, culminating in record customer numbers and betting volumes at the Cheltenham Festival and Grand National meeting.

“Product is a key reason why customers join and stay with Betfair. Important product improvements, including the extension of Price Rush to each way bets and Cash Out to in-running horseracing, helped to drive a strong performance during these key racing festivals.

“We continue to invest heavily in the business. This year we spent c.£28m more on marketing and customer bonuses and added more than 60 people to our product development teams.

“Our “Tap Tap Boom” advertising campaign has been effective in showing the simplicity of using Betfair, especially through our market-leading mobile apps. We are sustaining our marketing investment throughout the upcoming season, including leading slots on Sky Sports and BT Sport’s football coverage.

“Betfair is well positioned for further growth and we look forward to building on these results in FY16”.

Spirits group Diageo was lifted by rumours that LVMH could buy the UK group’s 34% stake in Moet Hennessy.

FTSE close: down 29.55 pts (0.4%) to 6,680.55 pts. The index, which fell to its lowest since late January on Tuesday, has lost about 5.5% over the past three weeks as investors worried about a Greek default and rising borrowing costs if the Federal Reserve raises its interest rates.