Richard Glynn's five years at Ladbrokes
eGaming Review recaps Richard Glynn's five years in the hot seat at Ladbrokes ahead of his departure
Ladbrokes’ announcement that chief executive Richard Glynn is to stand down from his role next year brings the curtain down on a five-year tenure that has seen a number of highs and lows.
Having joined the company to succeed Chris Bell in 2010, Glynn has overseen the transformation of Ladbrokes to a far more digital-savvy business than it once was, but it has not been a steady transformation.
Ladbrokes’ lacklustre performance in recent quarters had seen Glynn’s position come under increasing speculation and despite signs of a turnaround in fortunes, Glynn’s departure is not altogether unexpected.
Ladbrokes chairman Peter Erskine was full of praise for Glynn yesterday, claiming Ladbrokes to be a “far stronger company as a result of his work”, and he will undoubtedly leave a far different bookmaker than the one he joined in 2010.
2010 – The £12m deal
After seven years leading Sporting Index, Richard Glynn was the surprise appointment to succeed Chris Bell in April 2010. Ladbrokes had withdrawn from Italy earlier that month citing big losses – in 2009 Ladbrokes Italia lost the firm £9.9m – and Glynn was given the specific remit of revamping Ladbrokes’ digital business throughout his tenure. Ladbrokes’ biggest UK rival William Hill had in 2008 enlisted software supplier Playtech to overhaul its own online business, resulting in a profitable partnership for both parties.
Share price high: 161.8p
Share price low: 122.7p
Digital profit: £62.7m
2011 – A frustrating first full year
Glynn’s first full year in charge proved to be a frustrating and ultimately unsuccessful one. Having explored a merger with software supply firm Playtech, rival William Hill was able to secure an interim injunction to block the deal, arguing that its William Hill Online venture would be negatively impacted. Ladbrokes quickly moved on and sought to resolve its online weaknesses with M&A activity, but failed in two separate attempts to bolt on an online operator. Digital profit for the year slipped 16% to £52.4m, starting a slide that would take Glynn three years to arrest.
High: 152.8p
Low: 119.1p
Digital profit: £52.4m
2012 – An “organic” online strategy
Having failed to complete deals with Playtech, Sportingbet and 888 the year before, Glynn set about preparing the company for a £50m organic strategy that would see resources diverted towards developing products in-house. The strategy backfired, however, and the operator failed in its attempts to launch a renovated website in time for the Euro 2012 football championships, prompting it to issue the first of four profit warnings in just over 12 months. Digital profits meanwhile slumped to roughly half of the 2010 number.
High: 199.3p
Low: 131.6p
Digital profit: £31.8m
2013 – Betdaq and Playtech deals fail to arrest digital profit crash
Glynn finally secured his first major acquisition for Ladbrokes when the operator purchased Dermot Desmond’s betting exchange firm Betdaq for 30m in January. This was followed two months later by the signing of a landmark software deal with Playtech that Glynn’s tenure will ultimately be remembered for. But having hit the heights of 238.5p after the deal was signed, shares in Ladbrokes slumped as low as 171p as the operator issued multiple profit warnings and witnessed its digital profit for the year collapse to £8.2m. A number of redundancy rounds followed as Ladbrokes refocused itself for a more digital future and, as many speculated over his future at the firm.
High: 238.5p
Low: 171p
Digital profit: £8.2m
2014 – Migration complete, but an “awful lot more to do”
Much was said of Glynn’s desire to have Ladbrokes “match fit” in time for the FIFA World Cup in June and, despite having to rebuff further speculation over his job in February, in April Ladbrokes completed its migration to Playtech’s back-end just over a year after first signing with the supplier. It was major milestone for the firm and a number of new product releases – particularly on mobile – have followed. A new brand image and marketing campaign was released in the same month, but progress has been slow. Forecasted digital profit of circa £13m would be 58% up on last year’s, but not quite enough to earn Glynn another term at the helm.
High: 179p
Low: 110.7p
Digital profit: £13m (forecast)