nk1999
22 Jul 2016
HL view "Ladbrokes – M&AOver the last five years there has been little question about whether William Hill or Ladbrokes was the better bet. As well as a dominant position on the high street, William Hill took an early lead online, following a partnership with gaming technology specialist Playtech. comparison Ladbrokes floundered as it alternately tried to go it alone, or made on/off attempts to strike a deal with 888.com.As a result, William Hill shares have risen 16.5% in the last five years, while Ladbrokes are down 26.5%. However, there are reasons to think things might be about to change.Playtech has changed horses and is now Ladbrokes’ largest shareholder with a 10% stake. Ladbrokes also seems to have stolen a march on the rest of the industry with the widespread introduction of margin enhancing Self Service Betting Terminals to its high street stores.However, the real catalyst for change at Ladbrokes is the planned merger with Coral. Which, following a relatively favourable ruling by the competition and markets authority, will see the combined group with around 3,600 stores, making the group the UK’s largest high street bookmaker.More importantly the acquisition provides the opportunity to strip out head office and duplicate store costs. Ladbrokes estimates there will be ‘at least £65m p.a.’ of savings, which would significantly boost future earnings.It’s not a risk-free bet though. Coral brings a £865m debt pile with it, which when added to Ladbrokes’ own debts would leave the combined group with net debt of around three times combined earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). Add to that the inherent risks in large-scale integration projects and current uncertainty about the state of the UK economy following the Brexit vote, and it’s easy to see reasons for investors to remain cautious."[link]
Telecom Spiritualist
05 Jul 2016
Date of Interim Results Does anyone know the date of the interim results this year. It's usually in July, but not on ladbrokesplc website on RNS yet.
soundos
31 May 2016
Staff safety issues It takes a while but holders of Ladbrokes should read this article about the failure to protect staff in Ladbrokes betting shops. Not only shocking but is a reputational blow that could affect SP, particularly if campaigns get going.[link]
gamesinvestor
20 May 2016
Re: Merger News Ox -- Sold near the top today -- I don't like this any longer, with the debt and the massive exposure to high street shops in the face of an ever emerging mobile phone betting experience. It all looks like a race to the bottom, and the one's holding the shops and the debt are going to have a tough time.Loss taken -- will take it on the chin, learn from it and invest elswhere next week.Games
Oxtrader
20 May 2016
Merger News Well here to break the silence on some pretty profound news.. Good news; actually helps accelerate the need to move more 'online' - obviously they'd close the loss making stores and cut costs as a result. Question is will closing 400 hit profits?
forwardloop
30 Apr 2016
info Shares mag buy courtesy of allaince trustLadbrokes wins the race Bookie dodges Cheltenham disaster as William Hill floundersEmily PerrymanThe market has yet to realise the improved quality of UK bookmaker Ladbrokes (LAD), which is well-placed to benefit from the upcoming UEFA European Championship. The £1.2 billion cap’s strong first quarter trading statement (21 April) is in stark contrast to William Hill’s (WMH) profit warning in March, which was triggered by legislation designed to combat problem gambling and the ‘worst Cheltenham results in recent history’. Ladbrokes says Cheltenham merely ‘took some off the shine off’ its first quarter. Group net revenue rose by 10.6%, with digital net revenue up 36.5%. In October 2015 online gambling companies had to introduce tools that let problem gamblers automatically restrict themselves from placing bets. Ladbrokes says the impact of this is in line with expectations and already included in forecasts. In contrast, William Hill’s full year profits will be around £25 million lower than originally expected. Canaccord Genuity analyst Nigel Parson suggests William Hill’s problems might be directly related to its decision to take more technology in-house. ‘contrast, CEO Jim Mullen has put Ladbrokes through the initial stages of a transformational journey. Momentum looks encouraging – progress in its strategic review is clearly ahead of plan and the Coral merger could be significant in terms of creating the UK’s largest retail betting estate and driving scale in online,’ he says.Shares says Buy : "At 119.8p Ladbrokes is in prime position to take advantage of 2016’s summer of sport."
caloona
28 Apr 2016
LADS ABANDONING BOOKMAKING PRINCIPLES In the trading statement we hear `At Cheltenham we were reminded of the intense competition with offers and pricing at levels which, in our view, abandoned bookmaking principles. We competed hard but refused to pursue unsustainable strategies and our stance remains that we will compete where we know we can get the right returns from the right customers.`What do Ladbrokes do?Answer: Offer BOG Plus Take the price with Ladbrokes for a win or each way singles (including early prices and board prices) and if the SP returns greater than the price you've taken, they'll not just pay you at the SP but boost the price further.Prices are boosted to the next traditional price increment; for example, if you take a price of 3-1 and the selection wins with a SP of 7-2, they pay you at a boosted price of 4-1.Basically the margin is virtually zero for these bet.
Punilux
22 Apr 2016
Re: Trading update All looks strangely similar to WMH but with the specific figures missing and, with or without justification, including Aintree. The significance isn't so much the winnings, but the turnover which was "churned" from Cheltenham. For someone who has complained about poor bookmaking at Cheltenham, how have LAD contrived to hold a £3M liability on Leicester?Is it safe to assume that the postponement of the formal merger might lead to a greater element of risk eventually being priced in? Still, after Cheltenham there might be a few more LBOs that can be sacrificed.
gamesinvestor
21 Apr 2016
Trading update [link] growth in online.Cheltenham a disaster, but already known.Overall seems positive.Games
Davey Baby
04 Apr 2016
Re: Taking on the Tote Betfred have an exclusive licence to offer pooled betting in the UK until 2018. The rival plans are being discussed for when that licence ends.Pooled beting is a risk free play for the bookmakers - they take a percentage of the pool so it's less risky than the tight margins on normal betting & they wont lose if a string of favourites come in.
Kool Keith
04 Apr 2016
Re: Taking on the Tote There must be a market for people betting on the tote (not me), so probably a good thing for Lad, hills etc.I remember being lucky enough to be invited as a 'plus 1' into William Hills private boxes at the races and the then Chairman John Brown kept the Tote out of his shops for as long as was possible 'why take competitors bets for them'. That was when the Tote was the Tote and not owned by Betfred. To me even more reason why Lad, Hills, etc would want to offer their own pool betting.I must be missing a trick or pool betting is for 'mug' punters, I honestly don't know.Talking of mug punters I must look at the Grand National, Ballycassey 80-1 first 5 places that'll do haha Good Luck if you bet.
gamesinvestor
04 Apr 2016
Taking on the Tote """"""Horse racing industry group including The Jockey Club, Racehorse Media Group and a number of racecourses, are planning to launch a new pooled betting business to take on the Tote. The Mail on Sunday reported that the group has held talks with technology suppliers, overseas betting organisations and plans to enter talks with the rest of the UK’s 60 racecourses as well as leading betting shop chains such as William Hill and Ladbrokes, which offer Tote betting products in their shops.""""""Is this a good thing or a bad thing for Ladbrokes, William Hill?Games
GoldSifter
16 Mar 2016
Re: LAD, A Bullish Looking Chart...... 4.33 Remote gamblingRemote gaming operators currently benefit from a more generous tax treatment when they offer discounted or free gambling (‘freeplays’
to customers in Remote Gaming Duty than would be the case for operators offering free bets on things like football and horseracing. The government will therefore amend the tax treatment of freeplays in Remote Gaming Duty to bring it into line with the tax treatment of free bets in General Betting Duty.
Punilux
11 Mar 2016
Re: LAD, A Bullish Looking Chart...... According to Gambling Insider today Ladbrokes/Corals give their estimated revenue for the current year as being circa £2.1 Bn.Unless they are about to roll out some amazing new technology, this would indicate that they think that they will be allowed to increase their estate following the merger. If this is true (which I doubt) then the government might be giving another signal that they see retail betting as being a cash cow which can be milked every budget. As this will crush several major players naturally , the question of monopolies becomes hypothetical.
oldjoe1
08 Mar 2016
LAD, A Bullish Looking Chart...... LAD LadbrokesThey say Bookies are defensive stocks so just right at the moment. I hold LAD and was very convinced with last statement, it seems they are gearing the online side up substantially and should benefit from the Euros Football this summer. SP moved off bottom trendline yesterday within the uptrend channel. Im looking for a breakout of the channel and the former top initially at 140p or abouts, then after the summer a rise to 170p and above. P/E forecast to fall from 22 this year to 16 year 2017, rather cheap IMO.[link] Plc offers betting and gaming services.The company offers retail bookmaking in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and Spain.It offers betting markets on a daily basis via the Internet, mobile Internet and telephone.<b><u>Valuation 2016e 2017e</b></u>P/E ratio (Price / EPS) 21,9x 16,1xCapitalization / Revenue 1,04x 1,00xEV / Revenue 1,22x 1,16xEV / EBITDA 8,52x 7,69xYield (DPS / Price) 2,52% 2,86%Price to book (Price / BVPS) 2,79x 2,63x
