Ladbrokes to move online betting division to Gibraltar
6th August, 2009
Following our previous article Bookies William Hill and Ladbrokes to move abroad?" it has been reported by eGaming Review that Ladbrokes will follow in William Hill’s footsteps and move out of the UK to Gibraltar.
Ladbrokes announced that they will relocate their online betting division after revealing it’s disappointing 2.3% fall in revenue to £86.6m in addition to a drop in their operating profit of more than a fifth to £20.8m in their mid year financial report.
CEO of Ladbrokes, Chris Bell, said that the losses were due to fierce competition from rivals who are based abroad and therefore don’t have to pay the high UK tax that they are subject to, and that the move to Gibraltar was, “driven by clear commercial necessity”.
The company is going to revamp their sports book during the second part of the year in a bid to turn around the downward trend and appeal to younger players with a larger product range, video streaming and better functionality.
For Ladbrokes other products, casino saw a growth of 31.3% in active players due to their UK advertising campaign, however this only resulted in a 0.8% rise in revenue due to players taking lower stakes and being more careful with their money which is thought to be due to the current economic climate.
Poker continued to face a challenge with net revenue falling by 13.6%. However bingo was more positive with net revenues growing 28.8% with high player loyalty.
By Faye
