Ladbrokes Sportsbook Soars as Poker Wanes

Ladbrokes, the UK’s largest bookmaker, revealed its earnings for the third quarter and realized a 128% increase in revenue from last year’s Q3 reports, a fantastic rating considering its overall progress as of late. Ladbrokes attributed the overwhelming swell to “higher net revenue performance and lower operating costs.

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The company’s rise in profits comes from a Q3 2009 status of £22.4m, boosted to a much improved £51.1m in Q3 2010. Major contributors to this quarter’s numbers for Ladbrokes are the FIFA Football World Cup and 22 draws in the Premiership, substantially enhancing the company’s inclusive profit margin.

The net revenue for Ladbrokes also saw an increase of 12%, ascribed to a 17% increase in e-gaming opportunities at Ladbrokes online casino, sportsbook and bingo sites.

On the waning side of the spectrum is Ladbroke Poker, slipping by a sizeable 27% in Q3 compared to last year’s stats. The deflation of the online poker revenue comes as no surprise, though, as Ladbrokes chose to discontinue its online poker availability to the US market. This comes after a 15.7% decline in online poker revenue in Q1 and Q2 2010 combined. The first half of 2009 saw £12.7m in revenue from Ladbrokes online poker venue, down to £10.7m during the same period in 2010.

“Poker continues to be impacted by the industry-wide issues regarding liquidity in Europe compared to US facing sites,” said a spokesperson for Ladbrokes when commenting on the recent poker revenue reports.

Shortly after the Q3 report was release, Richard Glynn, chief executive for Ladbrokes, issued a statement in which he asserted his belief that the company was well on its way to meeting its goal for end of year expectations. However, he also made it clear that he felt next year would be “tough” for Ladbrokes.

“Ladbrokes has a great brand and a strengthened management team determined to drive operational improvements going forward,” Glynn said. “Though much remains to be done, I am encouraged by the progress we are making across the Group and I look forward to updating the market in February 2011.”

Ladbrokes stockholders are optimistic about the current market standings. Early trading saw shares rise from 137.44p to 141.10p, an increase of 3.66p. However, the value has since fallen back to 136.70p. Ladbrokes shares have seen quite the fluctuation over the last 52 weeks of trading, scaling from as low as 122.70p to as high as 164.60p.