Poll results: Management restructure best hope for Lads turnaround
Readers split on solution to operator's online troubles.
While this week may have marked the third management restructure in Richard Glynn’s two-year tenure as Ladbrokes chief executive, eGaming Review‘s readers believe that such a move represents the best avenue through which the operator can set right its underperforming online arm.
Director of product Richard Ames was relieved of his duties this week amid declining online profits, with Lads still awaiting the relaunch of its sportsbook, with Nick Rust taking charge of online and retail P&L in the UK and Ireland as part of a reshuffle which also sees new responsibilities for Damian Cope and Mark Grimes.
Some 39% of those polled believed a management restructure offered a solution, while readers were split between three other alternative courses of action.
Just under a quarter (24%) argued the acquisition of an online operator would help Ladbrokes recover from the 49.5% year-on-year drop in H1 online profits, perhaps suggesting a revival of last year’s talks with 888 and then Sportingbet “ or progress on recent discussions with Betdaq “ might be welcomed by some.
Ladbrokes’ rival UK operator William Hill has enjoyed online success since entering into a joint venture with Playtech in 2008, most recently seeing a 30% year-on-year revenue increase from online activities in last month’s first-half results, but only 20% of eGR readers believe Lads would benefit from entering into a similar deal of its own.
The remaining 17% believe the answer lies elsewhere, with one eGR LinkedIn Group member suggesting: “Land based operators like Ladbrokes and William Hill need to give the staff that work in their shops a crash course in online but especially mobile.
“My feeling is that these guys are waiting too long to bridge the gap between their huge land based distribution network and the mobile punter – If I was in charge at Ladbrokes (and others) – this would be the first thing I do,” he added.