Poll: What does Ladbrokes need to do to address its online decline?
Could the departure of Richard Ames precede significant change for the operator?
The departure of MD of products Richard Ames has shed more light on Ladbrokes’ online troubles, with the operator’s sportsbook relaunch held back until 2013 and CEO Richard Glynn’s ‘Project Galvanise” failing to reap the desired rewards so far.
Online NGR fell 3.5% in 2011 despite pledges from the chief executive to focus more on the channel, and last month the operator issued a profit warning for online ahead of this Thursday’s interim H1 results.
With a number of reshuffles, most notably Glynn’s 2010 move which saw MD of egaming Ed Andrewes and executive director John O’Reilly among several names to leave the London-listed company, struggling to turn around the operator’s online arm, could another management restructure offer a solution?
Alternatively, might we see calls for Lads to revive its interest in acquiring an online operator? Talks with Sportingbet fell through last October after the failure to agree upon “A suitable structure that delivered sufficient value to shareholders in a meaningful timeframe,” following the ultimately fruitless discussions with 888 earlier in 2011.
However in January this year Ladbrokes was rumoured to have entered talks to acquire exchange operator Betdaq, and newspaper reports in the UK this week have revisited such a potential deal. Could an acquisition be the impetus the operator needs to turn things around?
While Ladbrokes has toiled in the online world, rival operator William Hill has gone from strength to strength, with a 30% year-on-year increase in online revenues among the highlights of last week’s first-half results.
Hills’ online progress has arguably been accelerated by its William Hill Online joint venture with Playtech, so could Lads benefit from going down the same route?
To vote, see the poll on the right-hand side of this page.