William Hill says on track despite tricky first quarter

(Fixes date)

LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - British bookmaker William Hill (Other OTC: WIMHY - news) , which this month saw a 720 million pound takeover of rival 888 collapse, said it was confident in its outlook for 2015 despite revenue falling behind expectations in its first quarter.

Britain's biggest bookmaker, which has 2,400 UK betting shops as well as operations online, in Australia, the U.S. and Europe, said a big loss-making week driven by unfavourable football results meant revenue had fallen behind expectations in the first eight weeks of its first quarter to Feb. 24.

William Hill said on Friday it viewed volatile sporting results as part of normal trading given a rise in accumulator football betting online and in retail and therefore remained confident in its expectations for 2015.

As guided in January, the firm also reported a record full-year operating profit for 2014 of 372.2 million pounds ($574 million), up 11 percent on 2013, benefiting from a very successful World Cup, growth in mobile revenues and overseas.

($1 = 0.6481 pounds) (Reporting by Neil Maidment; editing by Kate Holton)