British bookmaker William Hill's first-half profit falls

Aug 7 (Reuters) - Britain's largest bookmaker William Hill (Other OTC: WIMHF - news) Plc posted a 12 percent fall in first-half operating profit, weighed down by increased machine games duty and a new tax on bets made online by its UK-based customers.

The group, which has around 2,300 UK shops and operations online, in Australia, the U.S. and Europe, said on Friday its operating profit was 155.7 million pounds ($241.51 million) for the 26-weeks to June 30, down from 176.9 million pounds a year earlier.

Group revenue was almost flat at 808.1 million pounds ($1.25 billion), with online growth of 7 percent.

In a separate statement, William Hill said it had acquired 29.4 percent of NeoGames, an online lottery software and services provider, for $25 million.

($1 = 0.6447 pounds) (Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bengaluru and Neil Maidment in London)