Ladbrokes, which has lately been planning a merger with Gala Coral lately, has posted its financial interim report for the first six months of the year ended on June 30th, 2016. The UK-based bookmaker has revealed strong performance over the period, as it managed to generate a profit before tax of £25.2 million in comparison to the last year’s loss of £51.4 million.
The Chief Executive Officer of the company Jim Mullen shared his opinion that customers were responding positively to the bookmaker’s new strategy, which was reflected by the strong numbers presented in the report.
According to the company’s statement, the stable results in the first half of the year is partly based on some sporting events with the latter having positive influence on its performance.
As mentioned above, Ladbrokes, the second-largest bookmaking operator on the territory of the UK, announced a profit before tax increase of 34.4% to £25.2 million after last year it posted a loss before tax of £51.4 million. The group operating profit over the above-mentioned period was 34.4% up to £37.7 million thanks to the good sporting results that were beneficial for the bookie’s overall performance, as well as thanks to its growth strategy.
Ladbrokes also announced a summer of its divisions performance. According to the report posted, the UK Retail division generated a 6.4% increase in its net revenue from £410.5 million in 2015 to £436.6 million in the first half of 2016. The operating profit of the division rose by 11.6% to £63.5 million. The bookmaker explained that the good over-the counter-staking trends have been quite beneficial.
The performance of the Digital division was very strong over the first six months of the year. The net revenue generated by it increased by 40.9% from £112.2 million in 2015 to £158.1 million in 2016 H1. The division also managed to reduce its operating loss from £11.5 million in 2015 to £9.6 million thanks to a 16.5% growth. According to the bookmaker, the overall positive trends in the Digital division’s performance were driven mostly by the qualitative products offering and marketing investment.
Ladbrokes’ financial report comes at a time when the company has announced a planned merger with the third-biggest bookmaking operator in the UK – Gala Coral. The deal, estimated to more than £2 million, is expected to result in creating the largest bookmaker in the country, which was exactly why the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) expressed its concerns that the competition in the region could be hurt.
Last week, the CMA ordered the two companies to dispose of between 350 and 400 betting outlets in the regions where their merger could hurt competition. Currently, Ladbrokes owns 2,150 betting shops in Great Britain and 77 on the territory of Northern Ireland, while Coral runs about 1,850 outlets in UK.