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A branch of Ladbrokes is seen in central London, Britain Reuters

Betting and gambling entity Ladbrokes Coral Group reported total net revenue gain of 5% for the Jan. 1-to-April 23 period, helped by a successful annual horseracing event at Cheltenham. The London-based company said trading was in-line with its expectations.

But the record low football results in Italy for the first quarter of 2017 offset some of those gains, the company said on Thursday.

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The digital division registered the strongest revenue gain of 22%, with a 40% increase in the Sportsbook net revenue largely contributing to the gain.

The European retail division generated the largest net revenue loss of 3% for the period.

"We see encouraging trends in Digital sportsbook and gaming with continued enthusiasm for our multi-channel products in all our major markets and over a million customers now signed up in the UK alone," "Ladbrokes Coral Group CEO Jim Mullen said in a statement.

"Sporting results in the UK gave with one hand and took with the other but we are probably marginally ahead overall. As previously communicated, sports results in Italy were unusually bad in February and March and have had an adverse impact on our Eurobet business, but pleasingly results have been a lot stronger in April."

Ladbrokes Coral Group had previously reported an annual pre-tax loss of £204.3m ($262m) for 2016, compared to a profit of £2m registered for the previous year.

The group's stock has fallen by nearly 4% as of 9:32 am BST.