888 Holdings on Tuesday said it did not expect any operational impact from the ongoing probe by the UK gambling regulator, after posting a 9% rise in first-half earnings helped by effective cost-cutting measures.

The William Hill owner last month appointed a new CEO after shrugging off its second-largest shareholder FS Gaming’s call to appoint its candidates to top roles that led the GB Gambling Commission to launch a review of the betting firm’s licences in the UK.

FS Gaming push for former GVC, now known as Entain, executives to be appointed to 888’s board, could have forced the firm out of its biggest market.

Separately, 888 now expects to realise synergies worth 150 million pounds ($190.52 million) in 2024, a year earlier than originally planned, the company said, while retaining its full-year revenue and profit.

888 swung to a first half loss of 45.2 million pounds ($57.3 million), from a profit of GBP14.4 million the same time a year prior.

Cost of sales rose to GBP294.0 million from GBP118.3 million, while operating expenses rose to GBP319.2 million from GBP82.8 million. Revenue rose to GBP881.6 million, from GBP332.1 million.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization a metric that strips out exceptional and other one-off items however rose to GBP155.6 million, from GBP50.0 million.

Lord Mendelsohn, Executive Chair of 888, commented: “I am very pleased with the progress we have made in the first half of the year as the Group delivered against the plans we committed to at our investor day last year, while also successfully navigating business, market and regulatory volatility.  

We made very strong progress with the execution of our integration plan and we now expect to realise the full £150m of synergies in 2024, a year earlier than the original plan. Our strong cash discipline and higher profits also enabled a 0.5x reduction in our leverage. We have successfully delivered against our focused market strategy, changing the mix of our revenue and creating a more profitable and sustainable platform for future growth.

I was thrilled to be able to announce the appointment of Per Widerström as our next CEO. Over the coming weeks I will be working closely with Per to ensure a smooth handover and I am highly confident in his ability to lead the team to realise the full potential of this business. The strategic progress made during the year to date has created a fundamentally stronger business with higher profit margins and we remain on track to deliver against expectations for the full year.”