Ladbrokes egaming boss:
Ladbrokes "had no alternative but to move offshore," the British bookmaker's head of online said today, but refused to criticize the UK government for its tax policies on gambling as he detailed his view of the company's egaming strategy.
LADBROKES “had no alternative but to move offshore,” the British bookmaker’s head of online said today, but refused to criticize the UK government for its tax policies on gambling.
Hours after the company’s half-year update, in which Ladbrokes revealed that it is to move its online betting division to Gibraltar, egaming head John O’Reilly said he was “not critical of the government, as there are many issues to deal with.”
“Even it’s not just about tax level for online betting, there are loads of other issues like VAT, corporation tax, other costs and so on to consider,” he said.
“The Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) needs to find the right framework to ensure that the Gambling Act priorities are realised: to protect consumers, to ensure games are fair and to keep crime out of gambling.”
O’Reilly’s views contrast with those of William Hill boss Ralph Topping, who this week said that the government had failed to live up to its promises on gambling taxes.
Commenting on the company’s H1 results, O’Reilly said that net gaming revenue was lower than hoped and results were down due to lower yields from high-staking players, but that the signs for Ladbrokes egaming are positive.
“Ladbrokes egaming has been very successful at growing organically over the past seven years without much capital expenditure, and we will do more. Having a sticky six months doesn’t mean the business model isn’t right,” he said.
“Gambling isn’t recession proof but it has been fairly resilient and the signs for egaming are positive: people want to play online, the sign ups show that and broadband penetration levels will keep on increasing. We plan to consolidate out H1 position in the UK sportsbook space and our relaunched sports betting site during Q4 will do that.”
O’Reilly continued that Ladbrokes plans to increasingly diversify its business away from the UK, which accounts for 72% of revenue.
“EU regulation is tough but really it has to be seen as upside: even though we’re still fighting for our rights to work in Holland and Germany, other markets such as Italy have shown there has been progress,” he said.