Games Workshop’s shares skyrocketed as the lined-up bumper shareholder rewards after stronger-then-expected trade this summer.

The FTSE 250 miniature maker’s sales boomed in the three months to 27 August, bringing in core revenues of £121million, up from £106million during the same period last year.

The Nottingham-based Warhammer owner declared a dividend of 50p per share, taking dividends declared so far this fiscal year to £1.95 per share,  up £1.20 per share in 2022.

The owner of Warhammer said that core revenue was ahead of expectations for the quarter at £121million, up from £106million last year

Games Workshop shares soared by 11.26 per cent to 11,560p in early afternoon trading on Friday.

The group revealed that profit before tax is estimated at £57 million for the full-year, up from £39million, ‘driven by healthy growth across all channels’. 

The board game company also said its licensing revenue has doubled year-on-year to £6million.

In July, the company admitted that it accidentally paid investors millions in illegal dividends.

Games Workshop said that due to a ‘minor technical breach’ a 45p per share dividend was paid out last November before it filed its half-year accounts with Companies House.

That meant the payment amounted to an ‘unlawful dividend’.

DIY INVESTING PLATFORMS

AJ Bell

AJ Bell

Easy investing and ready-made portfolios

Hargreaves Lansdown

Hargreaves Lansdown

Free fund dealing and investment ideas

Interactive Investor

Interactive Investor

Flat-fee investing from £4.99 per month

EToro

EToro

Social investing with CopyTrader feature

Bestinvest

Bestinvest

Free financial coaching

Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.

Compare the best investing account for you

A brand new game show certain to delight America is headed to television screens this fall.

The fast-paced game show, Person, Place or Thing, will be debuting on Fox Television Stations in the autumn, Deadline reported.

The half-hour show will be hosted by Reba star Melissa Peterman, 52, and sees contestants ‘ask “yes” or “no” questions to correctly determine the identity of a person, place, or thing,’ according to the outlet.

The program combines comedy with common knowledge and was created by Jeff Proctor and Paul Franklin.

Fox First Run will distribute 180 episodes of the game show, which last summer enjoyed a successful four-week long test run. 

Game on! Reba star Melissa Peterman will be the host of the new game show Person, Place or Thing

Proctor, Franklin, Peterman executive produce the show alongside Tracy Verna and David Hurwitz.

‘I’ve been trying to get Melissa to host one of our game shows for years,’ Stephen Brown, EVP of Programming and Development for Fox First Run and Fox Television Stations, told Deadline. ‘Her upbeat energy and comic timing work perfectly on Person, Place and Thing.’

Proctor and Franklin said: ‘We came together to create something fun, familiar, and lighthearted that the entire family can enjoy.

‘Partnering with former colleagues at Fox First Run and adding Melissa as the ideal host to make viewers laugh and want to play along will make this show a hit.’

Peterman said: ‘I’m excited to return to working with Stephen Brown and the team at Fox on a game show that is truly for everyone. This is a game for the 21st Century, with twists and turns that will keep people guessing. I promise that viewers will be shouting answers at the TV from home, but I can’t promise we’ll hear them. I can’t wait to get started.’

Peterman is a television veteran with numerous credits under her name, including the comedy series Baby Daddy. 

But fans may best remember her as the lovable dental hygienist Barbra Jean Booker Hart in the hit comedy series Reba.

She has continued working with country songstress Reba McEntire even after their show went off the air, with the duo recently appearing together in the Lifetime movie, Reba McEntire’s The Hammer. 

Think fast! The game show, Person, Place or Thing, will be debuting on Fox Television Stations in the fall

Friends forever! ‘I met her on the show and we’ve been friends ever since,’ Peterman said of her co-star Reba McEntire 

Superstars: Country music icon Dolly Parton once appeared on the show 

‘I love you to the moon and back’: Peterman wished Reba a happy 68th birthday earlier this year with this fun moon landing snap 

‘I met her on the show and we’ve been friends ever since,’ Peterman said of meeting Reba on the set of her eponymous show during an interview with KTLA 5.  

Back in March, when Reba celebrated her 68th birthday, Peterman marked the occasion with a triumphant photo of the country songstress striking a pose before the moon landing.

‘Happy Birthday Reba. I love you to the moon and back. #facts @reba #happybirthday #reba,’ she posted to Instagram.

Outside of her showbiz career, Peterman has been married to John Brady for 24 years. They have son Riley together. 

Whether the Lionesses win or lose against Spain tomorrow – and of course they will win – women’s football in England, and the rest of the UK, is going through the most spectacular transformation, defying even the most hardened sceptics.

Seven million fans in the UK watched the semi-final against Australia.

Double that are expected to tune in to the final at Stadium Australia in Sydney, the first time an England football team has played in a World Cup final since 1966 when Germany were beaten.

That’s a long time to wait for a rerun, but you can rely on the England fans to be prepared – and in style. Waitrose is stocking up on extra bacon, eggs, sausage and, indeed, English fizz ready for the celebration. Website searches for brunch food are up 54 per cent.

It is a much needed boost to an otherwise dismal summer for retail sales. VoucherCodes.co.uk reckons there will be a boost to the economy of £185m. About 11m are expected to stay home to watch the final with another 3m going to a pub or bar, which will help lift the hospitality sector. As it is a little early for drinking – the kick-off is at 11am – most spending will be on teas and coffees, although a few goals from Lauren Hemp will soon put paid to that puritanism.

Spectacular transformation: Seven million fans in the UK watched the semi-final against Australia

Yet this is small fry compared to the potential size of the UK women’s football market. If the sport keeps growing at its current rate, experts predict the market will easily be worth £1billion over the next decade through a mixture of commercial deals, sponsorship and broadcasting. Compare that to the total value of all women’s sports for 2021 of $1billion, and you can see how big the UK’s home market could be.

The more sceptical observers like to say that the only reason there has been such a hullabaloo about the women’s game is because the Lionesses are on such a winning streak, having won the Euros against Germany last year. Once the excitement dies down, the game will retreat.

Yet that is not the case at all. Quite the reverse. Deloitte’s annual review of football shows that between 2021 and 2022, revenue for broadcast – what’s called bundled packages when sponsors pay for their brands to appear on the shirts of both a club’s men and women team – and other commercial deals grew by 60 per cent.

Barclays has tripled what it pays for sponsoring the Women’s Super League and the Women’s Championships. It is now forking out £30m for three years whereas before it paid £10m for three years.

Baby clothing company, Joie, recently signed a partnership with Manchester City’s women’s team and so on. Broadcast income is also accelerating with the WSL and WC recently signing an annual £8m deal with Sky and the BBC, the highest of any professional football league in the world.

Players are also earning more. Combined wages across the 12 WSL clubs was £25m, up 37 per cent on the previous season. More critically, attendance at WSL and WC matches has soared by 200 per cent.

What is also surprising is that attendances are split pretty equally between women and men, despite the widespread attitude that the female game is nowhere near as exciting as the men’s.

I thought that too until my son dragged me to a Chelsea v Tottenham women’s game recently, and how wrong I was. What was heartening to see too was the sheer number of families going together. Ticket prices at £10 a shot are being kept low to attract more fans, and a good thing too.

But despite this big jump in attendances, the average number of fans attending games is still only 5,600 per match, compared to up to 50,000 for men’s matches.

Deloitte’s Amy Clarke, who specialises in women’s football, reckons that as the game becomes more professional, attendances will grow rapidly.

It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation as one of the drawbacks facing women’s teams is the lack of infrastructure, and there is a need for more investment in the clubs.

Yet that’s changing too, and fast. With perfect timing, tech entrepreneur Victoire Cogevina Reynal launched a $100m fund this week aimed at buying controlling stakes in women’s football clubs in Europe and Latin America. Named Mercury 13 after female pilots who were not allowed to join Nasa’s astronaut programme because of their sex, Reynal is said to be most interested in looking at English clubs first.

She clearly has a good eye for a winner.

A lion has torn apart and eaten an employee of a game reserve in South Africa after the man took an ill-advised night-time stroll.

The 30-year-old victim, Johannes Matshe, an employee of the reserve, met his gruesome fate while walking through Dinokeng Game Reserve in Gauteng after dark on Sunday night. 

At some stage in the night, the big cat pounced on the unsuspecting employee, ripping him limb from limb in a merciless attack. 

Stomach-churning images of the grisly scene, which MailOnline has chosen not to publish, showed how the flesh was torn from Matshe’s skull while his boot-clad leg bone lay twisted in the grass. 

Reserve spokesman Hartogh Streicher revealed that it was an unfortunate operations manager who stumbled upon the human remains at 10:37 on Monday morning. 

A lion is pictured at the Dinokeng Game Reserve in South Africa

Streicher made it clear that wandering the reserve after sunset was strictly forbidden. As he extended condolences to Matshe’s grieving family, he solemnly reminded everyone of the peril facing those who do not abide by the reserve’s safety rules.

‘Lions are nocturnal animals, driven by their natural instinct and hunting patterns, and may perceive a person as a normal prey species,’ he said.

He added that the reserve was seeking out expert advice about handling the lion following the attack.

‘Concerning the management of the lions responsible for this killing, no decision has been reached whether they have become unnaturally dangerous, but the reserve is receiving expert advice to make the most responsible decision possible for all parties concerned.’

He concluded his statement with an impassioned plea to all landowners to keep a watchful eye on their gamekeepers and visitors, reporting any breaches of the rules to prevent a tragic recurrence of the harrowing incident.

The Hammanskraal state police, under the leadership of Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi, have taken charge of the investigation and are trying to understand how and why Matshe entered the reserve alone at night. 

In 2018, a 22-year-old woman met a horrific end when a lion launched a fatal attack (stock image)

This is not the first time that the Dinokeng Game Reserve has witnessed such a gruesome scene. 

In 2018, a 22-year-old woman met a similarly horrific end when a lion launched a fatal attack. 

She had been accompanying a friend who had gone to interview the camp’s manager when she was pounced upon.

In the wake of that attack, reserve management sought to clarify that the attack had occurred within a restricted conservation zone inaccessible to the general public, and involved a lion that was not part of the reserve’s population of wild, free-roaming lions.

Situated in the northeastern reaches of Gauteng, Dinokeng reserve boasts 19,000 hectares of land and is the only Big Five game reserve in the province. 

Big Five is a term used to describe what hunters deem the most dangerous animals to pursue – the African elephant, Cape buffalo, African lion, leopard and rhinoceros.

Matildas captain Sam Kerr has been named on the bench for the second game in a row as Australia looks to create history in Women’s World Cup quarter final match against France in Brisbane.

The Chelsea striker missed the entire group stage with a calf injury and was only deployed for 12 minutes in the Matilda’s round of 16 win over Denmark.

Now Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson has named an unchanged lineup, rewarding the players that beat the Danes 2-0 to set up the crucial quarter final clash.

The Matildas have never advanced further than the quarter finals at a World Cup and neither has their opposition.

The decision might indicate that Kerr has not fully recovered from the calf injury that has plagued her this World Cup, despite taking part in running drills with Matildas teammates on Friday.

Coach Tony Gustavsson said yesterday that Kerr would definitely start if 100 per cent fit, yet has named her on the bench for the second straight match.

That means the likes of tournament hero Hayley Raso, Mary Fowler, Caitlin Foord and Emily van Egmond will again be called on to provide the offensive punch in the opening exchanges. 

‘I want to be very clear in here now to say if Sam is fit to play 90 minutes, she is starting,’ he told reporters. ‘There is not even a question and the team knows it.

‘We’re talking about Sam Kerr here. Whether she is ready to play 90 minutes plus extra time, that’s to be decided tonight. But there is no question whatsoever that if she is, she is starting.’

Kerr poses for selfies as she arrives at Brisbane Stadium for the Women’s World Cup quarter final clash against France

Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson, arriving at Brisbane Stadium today, previously said that Kerr would start if she was 100 per cent fit

Gustavsson also bristled at suggestions starting Kerr would disrupt the rhythm of the Matildas who crushed Canada without her and dispatched Denmark with minimal input from their captain.

‘They’ve been amazing teammates supporting each other,’ the coach said of his players. 

‘There’s been no complaints whatsoever in terms of if you start or come off the bench – they know their role and they play their role. And I definitely would never, ever see Sam as a disturbance to the team.’ 

Follow Mail Sport’s live blog for the preseason Hall of Fame Game between the New York Jets and the Cleveland Browns.

This year’s Pro Football Hall of Fame class has now been enshrined!

All nine former pros were introduced to fans at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium before tonight’s pre-season game starts! That includes Bonde Barber, Don Coryell, Joe Klecko, Darrelle Revis, Ken Riley, Joe Thomas, Zach Thomas and Demarcus Ware.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell greets Browns QB Deshaun Watson

The 27-year-old has claimed that he’s a changed man since completing his 11-game suspension last season, following his trade from the Houston Texans. Read more here:

Zach Wilson gets his chance to shine tonight!

It’s only a pre-season game but last season’s starting QB can really demonstrate his worth tonight and prove that he is the natural successor to Rodergs once the latter’s contract is up in 2025.

The Jets starting QB is seen on the field for the first time tonight!

He may not be playing in what is the Jets’ first pre-season game, but ‘AR12’ (or ‘AR8’ depending on if you’re a Jets or Packers fan) was noticeably seen in conversation with Jets owner Woody Johnson — the former US ambassador to the U.K. under the Trump Administration — before kickoff.

Any thoughts on what the pair have talked about?

The Aaron Rodgers effect!

An endless line of fans has been spotted outside of the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium as they wait to get through the gates and to their seats

57th annual Hall of Fame Game

Tonight marks the 57th playing of the Hall of Fame Game. The event debuted in 1962 and has been played annually, with the exception of four years.

The Browns are making their sixth overall appearance in the Hall of Fame Game and first since 1999 (also 1963, 1967, 1981 and 1990).

The Jets are making their third appearance and first since 1992 (also 1977).

Gang Green arrive in Canton

Zach Wilson will likely get the nod to start as the Jets quarterback tonight over Aaron Rodgers.

Wilson, the former No. 2 overall pick, has now been assigned the backup quarterback role after a turbulent 2022 season, and the small matter of Aaron Rodgers’ arrival.

Though, many view the presence of Rodgers as only beneficial to the ex-BYU standout.

And it seems Wilson is in lockstep with that train of thought thus far at the beginning of minicamp.

Welcome!

Good evening and welcome to Mail Sport’s coverage of the 2023 Hall of Fame Game!

The New York Jets will be taking on the Cleveland Browns in Canton, Ohio at 8pm ET.

Its the first chance to see the revamped AFC East squad, whpse offseason was highlighted by the acquisition of Aaron Rodgers.

Stick around as we bring you live updates from the game!

Knicks forward Obi Toppin had an ‘intense verbal altercation’ with head coach Tom Thibodeau after New York lost a playoff game against the Miami Heat in the second round of the postseason, according to a report from The Athletic.

Toppin, 25, was left fuming over his lack of game time after sitting on the bench for all of the second half of Game 4 in Miami on May 8.

Immediately after the contest was over, the third-year Knicks player confronted his head coach and their exchange ‘spilled into the [team’s] postgame meeting’ in the visiting locker room at Kaseya Center. 

Unverified audio footage from the Heat’s home court also shows Toppin yelling at someone before being calmed down by several of his teammates, including Julius Randle, Josh Hart and Evan Fournier, in the tunnel after the game, although it was unclear at the time who he was angry with. 

Several Knicks players declined to comment on the altercation, postgame. Toppin didn’t address reporters for the remainder of the series.

Obi Toppin & Tom Thibodeau reportedly clashed heads after the Knicks’ Game 4 loss to Miami

The 2020 National College Player of the year, who’s from Brooklyn, registered 18 points and eight rebounds as a starter in Game 1 in the Knicks’ 101-108 loss to the Heat. 

He was named among New York’s starting five after Randle was sidelined with an ankle injury, sustained in the team’s first round series win against the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

However, Toppin saw his game time dramatically dwindle following the return of ‘King Julius,’ only playing a mere six minutes in the team’s Game 4 loss. 

The Athletic reported that Toppin and Thibodeau made up a day after their clash. The Knicks’ No. 1 played 12 minutes in each of the team’s following two games in the series, as New York crashed out of the playoffs.

Toppin made up with his head coach a day after the clash, playing in the team’s last two games

Toppin, who selected as the eighth overall pick out of the 2020 NBA draft, has been playing 14.7 minutes per contest on average in his first three seasons in the Big Apple. 

He’s mostly come off the bench as a backup to Randle, the team’s star forward and a two-time All-Star. 

Toppin is eligible for a contract extension this offseason and could be dealt with ahead of Thursday’s draft in exchange for a late first-round pick or a big-name signing who’s currently under contract. 

The Knicks are short on picks this year, despite owning 10 first-rounders all the way until 2029. The franchise traded away its first-round pick this year to obtain Josh Hart from the Portland Trail Blazers prior to the NBA trade deadline in February. 

New York is currently without a general manager, ever since the departure of Scott Perry was confirmed in May. Perry, 59, had been the team’s GM since the 2017-18 season.