Lottery has no terrors for Zetters

ZETTERS GROUP, one of the three football pools companies, said yesterday it could live alongside a national lottery.

'It is not going to be good news for the pools companies,' Terry Yardley, finance director, said.

But, he added, the positive news was that the lottery prize would not exceed pounds 1m. 'So as far as the punter attraction is concerned it isn't overwhelming.'

Zetters' results for the six months to 30 September, released yesterday, continued to show the scars of the loss of business to bingo competitions in national newspapers in 1991.

Turnover fell from slightly more than pounds 11m to pounds 10.8m and pre-tax profits eased from pounds 451,000 to pounds 427,000. The interim dividend is held at 4p.

Some 40 per cent of Zetters' punters are on the company's standing entry system, a boon for cash flow, which remains positive.

The company declined to disclose the amount of interest receivable in the half-year results. In 1991-92 it accounted for more than one-third of profits of pounds 1.1m.