Ladbrokes announce profits down 28%

The bookmaker always wins in the long run but Ladbrokes would like to have done better as it reported profit for the year down some 28% from £265.6 million to £191.3 million on revenues down to £983.7 million from £1.05 billion. The company blamed a run of poor football results in which there were fewer draws than usual and which favoured the gambler (meaning we think fewer surprises) but went on to say that its cost cutting measures were starting to produce results. Since the turn of the year the poor weather has also caused the cancellation of many horse racing meetings in Britain and Ireland as well as football matches all of which affects revenues. Ladbrokes is forecasting a difficult year ahead as concern grows about employment security amongst customers but hopes that the World Cup in the summer will boost earnings. The company which recently had a surprise rights issue which raised £286 million to reduce debt and had Chief Executive Chris Bell announce his resignation after 20 years with the firm has introduced a pay freeze and reduced staff hours to control costs but still hopes to open another 15 shops this year and employ the necessary staff so signals are a little mixed. There was no specific mention of which way they expect online gambling to go but other bookmakers seem to think it is on the increase.