Ladbrokes blame heat wave on falling revenue

UK bookmaker Ladbrokes blamed the heat wave for sliding sales, which were down 20% to £85.7 million for the companies first half year results. According to the company less customers visited their land based betting shops in July because of the temperatures.

Britain’s second largest bookmaker behind William Hill has been slow to respond and grow their online gambling business which makes the company more reliant on their bricks and mortar business and again shows the reasoning for more work to be done by the company in that area.

According to the companies figures visitors to their betting shops dropped by 15% in July, which impacted on their FOBTs with revenue for them down over 9%.

“Although this weather effect is one off, it is unlikely that lost machine revenue will be recovered during the rest of the year,” Ladbrokes commented.

Ladbrokes has formed an alliance with Playtech in the hope to increase its revenue stream for the online business and make ground up on their larger rival.

The company reported one-off costs of £21.8m in the first half, largely related to its new partnership with Playtech that will see a new mobile gambling site launched in 2014.

CEO Richard Glynn said he was disappointed that progress in reshaping the business was not yet reflected in the bottom line. “We have maintained the dividend for shareholders, confident that the plans we now have in place will generate growth in earnings in 2014 and beyond,” he said.