Thousands of employees at Sports Direct are set to share a £140 million bonus pool after the sports goods retailer reported a 40 per cent rise in full-year pretax profit, boosted by last summer’s London Olympics and the Uefa European football championship.

About 2,000 employees, on an annual salary of £20,000 or more, will each pocket an average of 12,000 shares – valued at about £72,000.

The bonus bonanza comes as sales in the year to the end of April rose 20.9 per cent to £2.19 billion, lead by a 22.7 per cent jump in retail revenue, driving pretax profit to £207.2 million. UK sports retail sales rose 17.3 per cent in the 52-week period against a pro forma period in the previous financial year to £1.57 billion, while retail gross profit rose by 22.9 per cent to £801 million. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013)