Ladbrokes confirms head of trading dismissal
Jon Thompson dismissed due to "alleged fraud" " second employee suspended.
Ladbrokes’ head of trading Jon Thompson has been dismissed pending appeal the operator has confirmed, with media reports suggesting the sacking is related to “alleged fraud,” while a second employee has been suspended pending an internal hearing.
British newspaper The Daily Mail reports the dismissal comes over concerns of how Thompson was running the operator’s trading department and that he is thought to have been linked to the “setting up of a rogue account in which bets were placed at favourable prices “¦ [The] transactions that are under investigation could add up to a significant sum but the police are not involved,” the paper reported.
A second employee has also been suspended, though a spokesman for Ladbrokes told eGaming Review their identity would not be revealed until the “HR process” had been completed. The spokesman went on to confirm that the individual was also part of the trading department and that no other employees were involved in the situation.
An analyst note from Simon French of Panmure Gordon this morning described the dismissal as “clearly disappointing news” which “calls into question the structure of the business which moved away from a divisional approach to a competency- or discipline-based one some 12 months ago.”
Thompson joined Ladbrokes in February last year after leaving his role as global head of trading for Bodog where he started as trading director for Bodog Europe in July 2007. As trading director for Ladbrokes he was responsible for trading, risk management and in-play betting across the online and retail platforms, and oversaw the introduction of margin management tools and the increased automation of the trading process.
While French’s note raised concerns about the restructuring of the business, he retained his firm’s ‘Buy’ recommendation, saying that “any share price weakness should be viewed as an opportunity,” as it gives Ladbrokes a chance to address weaknesses in its trading: “Trading has long been a weakness in Ladbrokes with OTC gross win margin tracking 120bps [basis points] behind William Hill in 2011 and [around] 240bps in Q1. Therefore this cloud may have a silver lining if superior traders can be recruited,” French explained.