Ladbrokes Australia to migrate to “phenomenal” Neds platform
Australian betting brand set for “no brainer” move to Neds technology before full GVC integration
Ladbrokes Australia will migrate across to Neds’ proprietary technology stack by July 2019, Ladbrokes Australia CEO Jason Scott has revealed.
Speaking at the operator’s Capital Markets Event last week, Scott said he had been hugely impressed with the Neds tech since GVC acquired the Dean Shannon-founded betting business for £52m last year.
GVC’s smaller Australian-facing brands, bookmaker.com and Betstar, were integrated to the Neds stack in April 2019 with no issues.
And Scott is keen for the Ladbrokes.com.au site to part from its legacy technology and do the same by H2 2019, with the operator “pushing hard for July” or “no later than August”.
Ladbrokes Australia CEO Jason Scott
Scott said: “When I first got into discussions with Neds CEO Dean Shannon, acquiring a tech platform was certainly not at the top of my mind.
“But post-acquisition, when we had a look at what the Neds platform could do in terms of the speed, the scalability, the personalisation and the lack of human resources that it needed compared to Ladbrokes, it actually became a no-brainer for us to move onto that platform.”
GVC acquired Neds for an initial £37m in November, with the move described as “sensible and modest” by analysts.
Scott also revealed he had very little interest in acquiring Neds when a deal was first touted last year, but was eventually persuaded by the numbers and the profile of its punters.
“I started speaking to Dean about us buying Neds and I wasn’t that interested because when we started our discussions, Neds had only done 10 months of trading.
“Dean is a magnificent salesman and a very smart man, but when we were talking, I was probably only showing a little bit of interest to be polite – deep down I really wasn’t that keen.
“But then we had a look at the numbers and it was phenomenal – the size and scale they had built in such a short amount of time, and also the quality of the client base.
“These were very loyal customers with a low average bet and a low churn rate. The margin was double figures, so we got a little bit excited.”
GVC slide on Neds tech
According to Scott, Neds is on course to reach $2bn in turnover and $210m gross win this year.
In January 2019, the start-up had been trading for 16 months, which would make Neds the fastest Australian betting brand to reach both of those milestones, according to GVC.
“Considering they joined a fairly mature market, that is a really great compliment to the people who kickstarted Neds and they are now working with us,” added Scott.
Ladbrokes Australia and Neds will ultimately be migrated to GVC’s main technology stack.