UK’s second-largest bookmaker, Ladbrokes, has revealed that blanket Olympic television coverage and cancelled horse races had greatly reduced the sums of money gambled in British betting shops.
Ladbrokes also reported that although the Olympics in London proved to be very popular amongst Britons it did not result in a surge in their business as most of the sports in the Games did not attract large numbers of gamblers to place bets.
The bookmaker said that amounts that were wagered in its British betting shops were down 4.9 percent in the three months running through September which covered the Olympics and the Paralympics. The cancellation of 38 horse racing meetings due to bad weather also contributed to the decrease in the amounts wagered.
According to Richard Glynn, Chief Executive for Ladbrokes, viewers were offered 24 hours of free, high quality TV sports which went on for approximately 5 weeks during the Olympics and Paralympics. Glynn added that this resulted in people preferring to watch TV rather than go out to the betting shops.
Glynn also reported that its quarterly operating profit had reached 49.2 million pounds ($ 79.5 million) while net revenue rose 3.9 percent.
Ladbrokes’ first version of its new online sports betting website was released successfully and it is planning to move customers on to the platform by the end of March, 2013. The bookmaker has also invested in excess of 50 million pounds on technology over the past two years and is hoping to start seeing a payback from its investment by next year.
