Ladbrokes Australia already in profit says Glynn

Ladbrokes chief executive Richard Glynn confirmed during this morning’s Q3 results that its Australia-facing business is now profitable little more than a year after launching.

The firm revealed that its Australian brand had performed strongly in the quarter with net revenue jumping up 172% after it more than doubled its active customer base.

Glynn said that Ladbrokes had bought into the market at a good price and that its growth had largely been driven by a “good management team” and innovations in its digital offering, such as facilitating payments back onto credit cards.

“The Ladbrokes brand is getting some resonance there, but there’s an awful lot to play for,” Glynn added.

Ladbrokes made its first move into Australia in September last year with the £13m acquisition of Gaming Investments, and followed that up with April’s purchase of Melbourne-based Eskander’s Betstar for approximately £11m.

The online market in Australia has been hotly contested and UK-based operators have found the going tough.

Betfair announced its withdrawal from the market on a B2C basis in August, selling its 50% stake in Betfair Australasia to its joint-venture partner Crown Resorts for AUS$10m.

And Glynn admitted the firm still faced its stiffest challenge of 2014 with the impending Spring Carnival set to define its fortunes for the year.

Describing the annual horse racing event as “make or break” for bookmakers in the country, Glynn said that last year’s unfavourable results had left many operators out of pocket.

“Last year a few saw a loss in profitability through a bad result in the Melbourne Cup. We’ve got a big few weekends ahead of us that will determine the profitability of Australia,” he added.