Ladbrokes launches General Election micro-site
Ladbrokes beefs-up political betting offering with Lowdown General Election 2015 featuring interactive constituency map and political news updates
Ladbrokes has launched a UK General Election-focused micro-site as the operator looks to ramp-up its political betting offer ahead of the 7 May vote.
The Ladbrokes Lowdown – General Election 2015 was released yesterday and features an interactive constituency map that uses Ladbrokes’ live prices to display the expected outcome of each seat as well as the overall seat distribution.
The site, which was developed in conjunction with digital agency Grand Parade and digital marketing firm Branded3, also provides customers with Ladbrokes’ full portfolio of General Election betting markets, live news updates and Ladbrokes Politics’ Twitter feed.
An estimated £100m is expected to be staked on General Election and yesterday’s Lowdown launch comes shortly after rival Betfair released its own dedicated site and app, Betfair Predicts, also developed by Grand Parade.
“This [micro-site] is a by-product of the rest of the business recognising that the General Election is going to be a big deal for Ladbrokes so it was worth putting as much resources into it as possible,” Alex Donohue, Ladbrokes PR office, told eGaming Review.
“We’ve been working on our entire offering for the General Election since the Scottish Referendum and the micro-site and interactive map has been very much part of that so it’s been in process for a number of months,” he added.
Donohue said the interest in Ladbrokes’ General Election markets had so far been “greater than originally anticipated” and said its odds were often being referenced by politicians, campaigners and in the media.
“Lots of people are engaging with Ladbrokes for the first time and lots of existing customers are engaging with our political markets for the first time so overall it’s proving to be very positive,” Donohue said.
And according to Donohue, Ladbrokes breathed a sigh of relief when the political parties and TV broadcasters were able to thrash out a deal for a series of television debates, the second of which takes place this evening.
“We are very pleased these debates have been put together,” Donohue said. “Not only are they great in terms of turnover with Buzzword Bingo and our other markets, but it also generates huge interest and if anyone has a stormer it can impact the outright odds.”
Last year the company appointed its first full-time political trader in the shape of Matthew Shaddick, who regularly blogs on political betting markets for Ladbrokes at PoliticalBookie.com, with some the blog entries available via the Lowdown site.