A “TRANSFORMATIONAL” year for Liverpool gaming and pools group Sportech will see it deliver profits in line with market expectations.

In a trading update ahead of its annual figures in March, the Walton- based business said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation should be in the region of £19.7m, compared with a consensus of about £19.3m.

Sportech, which operates the New Football Pools brand which embraces the former Littlewoods, Vernons and Zetters games, also revealed that strong cash flows enabled it to reduce net bank debt by almost 10% to £72.3m, which was, again, better than market forecasts.

Last year, exceptional charges of £30m and a fall in earnings from £71.8m to £64.6m in a difficult year for the leisure industry resulted in a loss of £17m and adjusted pre-tax profits of £14.7m, down from adjusted profits of £16.8m in 2009.

The business finally completed the £51.4m acquisition of US-based betting business Scientific Games Racing (SGR) last year which has turned the company into a global gaming entity, processing more than £8bn of bets and a presence in 30 countries.

Sportech has confirmed that the integration of SGR, now renamed Sportech Racing, is “at an advanced stage”.

And it said it also expects to announce further distribution deals for its football pools business later this year.

Chief executive Ian Penrose said: “2010 has been a transformational year for Sportech.

“We completed a major acquisition of Scientific Games Racing, positioning Sportech as one of the world’s leading suppliers and operators of pools and tote gaming.

“We have also continued to modernise our existing operations. In a tough trading environment the group continued to generate strong cash flows enabling material debt reduction.”

Liverpool stockbroker Panmure Gordon said: “This is an encouraging statement, in our view, highlighting the continuing solid progress in what has been a transformational year for the group.”