Our general online casino news features Ladbrokes

In this month’s general casino news report we focus on one of our major online casino operators Ladbrokes. Apart from Paddy Power, Ladbrokes have the biggest high street presence of any of the major online bookmakers in Ireland and therefore also have a large number of online casino games players in this country, making it an important player in Ireland’s online gambling sector. There is no doubt that Ladbrokes has had its problems over recent years, particularly when compared to their arch rivals William Hill, but the new management are reported to be finally turning the corner. It is hoped that their new partnership with the leading online casino software supplier Playtech, the driving force behind the success of William Hill’s online casino operations, will provide similar progress for Ladbrokes in this sector. They have also recently announced the purchase of one of Australia’s fastest growing online sports betting operators, Gaming Investments, owners of Bookmaker.com. au and Panda Gaming. Ladbrokes are not the first of our major online casino operators to dip their toes into the Australian online gambling market this year, so we await the results of this venture with interest. Closer to home Ladbrokes appear to have significant problems with their high street betting shop chain, which remains their core business and where analysts believe their earnings may have fallen by as much as 20% in the first half of the year. If true, and it is yet to be confirmed by Richard Glynn Ladbrokes chief executive, this would seriously affect their full year profit prospects with forecasts expected to be cut by as much as 5%. Nevertheless investors appear to be hopeful that the efforts of the company to change their fortunes will eventually bear fruit and shares remain not only stable, but with a rise of 36% over the past year have outperformed the All Share market by over 13%.