Betdaq "strategic weapon in battle for customers" says Ladbrokes CEO
Richard Glynn says 30m acquisition will offer operator "optionality" over product, prices, and range of customers it will be able to offer these to.
Ladbrokes’ acquisition of Betdaq earlier this year has given the operator a “strategic weapon” in the battle for customers and liquidity, its chief executive boasted this morning.
Announcing annual numbers where retail produced record results, while online profits continued to decline, Richard Glynn said the 30m acquisition would offer the operator “optionality” over product, prices, and the range of customers it will be able to offer these to.
Describing Betdaq as the “best value exchange on the market” with a commission structure of 3% and used by 20 to 30% of Ladbrokes existing customer base, Glynn said the company would soon begin to “increase the visibility and competitiveness” of the existing Betdaq betting exchange and integrate the product into the “Ladbrokes family” to allow it to become the “strategic weapon in the on-going battle for customers and liquidity”.
Despite a near 40% fall in online net profit blamed largely on investing tens of millions of pounds in trading, sportsbook, mobile and CRM platforms and technology that have faced combined delays of two years, Glynn and chairman Peter Erskine both said there was “serious momentum” in the business and that an acceleration in growth would begin to materialise as this year progresses.
“We’ve finished a lot of the heavy lifting and there has been a steady improvement in digital. The digital sportsbook is on track for Q1, there has been a significant improvement in the customer journey with more than 90% of customers [asked to test the new site] finding it easier to use,” Glynn said.
“We have delivered the foundation for growth by redefining our core technology architecture, increasing the flexibility of core suppler relationships, built a proprietary trading platform, expanded our product range, will soon rollout a new sportsbook and mobile platforms and have a CRM to grow customer value.”
The next stage”, he said, is to “maximise customer yield” customer lifetime value adding the company was “focused” on delivering those results in the near future.
Discussing a slide during this morning’s analysts presentation Glynn said that the company would begin to “grow customer value” through the use of superior platforms, improved product, optimised rewards and improved data and CRM.
“We are actively focused on the customer journey, we are aligning rewards with customer behaviour and we are working closer with our suppliers.”
Asked by analyst Matthew Gerrard of Credit Suisse why the company’s casino and games performance “ that generates almost half of Ladbrokes’ online revenues “ was “lagging” Glynn responded by saying that as “we get the software, platforms and teams in place” and campaigning is more focused “those things would converge in the middle of this year part where CRM is the driver of growth”.
Chairman Erskine told analysts that he “hoped” they were “encouraged” by the company’s headline numbers, but also that through an improved trading platform and greater focus on customer yield that there was “much more left in the tank”.
“We’re investing sensibly, paying down debt and increasing the dividend “ we’re in a much better place than we were [a number of years ago] and are confident of increased momentum,” he added.