Ladbrokes launches Spanish brand Sportium
Spanish-facing joint venture to soft launch with Cirsa customers only as Playtech migration forces Lbpuestas customers to wait
Ladbrokes is to soft launch the online offering of its Spanish-facing brand Sportium tomorrow (Tuesday) for Cirsa customers only, eGaming Review can reveal.
The website will initially launch with just Cirsa customers following issues relating to Ladbrokes’ software migration to Playtech, with a full-scale launch to follow in the coming weeks.
Once the migration is complete, customers from Ladbrokes’ existing online Spanish sportsbook Lbpuestas will be transferred over to Sportium.
Sportium “ a joint venture with Spanish operator Cirsa “ will be headed by director Alberto Eljarrat, who had previously worked at Cirsa.
The UK bookmaker has been working on the migration of its online businesses to Playtech from rival software provider Microgaming since April, but has encountered difficulties during the process.
Ladbrokes CEO Richard Glynn admitted that the operator had underestimated the disruption caused by the migration following the issue of a third profit warning of the year.
Ladbrokes first announced the intended launch of its Sportium brand online in Spain at the company’s H1 results call in August, highlighting the brand’s strong land-based performance despite the country’s economic difficulties.
Spain has suffered with near 30% unemployment however Sportium’s portfolio of approximately 600 bricks and mortar outlets has maintained like-for-like growth.
The same cannot be said however for online, with online gross gaming revenue in the country down for a second consecutive quarter in Q3, falling 7% to 51.6m.
An online launch of the Sportium brand into Mexico is still planned to follow in the first half of next year as Ladbrokes looks to boost its presence in Latin America in the build up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil next summer.
In other news:
– More cuts at Ladbrokes with 56 jobs under threat