Lads CEO takes pop at rivals' "unsustainable" Cheltenham trading

Ladbrokes chief executive Jim Mullen this morning took a swipe at the trading strategies employed by the bookmaker’s rivals during the recent Cheltenham Festival, describing some of the attempts to win market share as “abandoning bookmaking principles”.

In a Q1 trading update released this morning, in which bookmaker posted a 37% rise in digital net revenues, Mullen said competition during the Festival had been fierce and at times “unsustainable”.

“At Cheltenham we were reminded of the intense competition with offers and pricing at levels which, in our view, abandoned bookmaking principles,” Mullen said.

“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,” he added.

In the run-up to the Festival, Ladbrokes announced its “biggest ever range” of Cheltenham offers.

Ladbrokes’ inducements included a money back offer, both in-shop and online, on the first race on each of the four days should the SP favourite win the race, as well as a refund of stakes for second placed horses in the remaining televised races.

Following a host of short-priced winners, the firm said the Festival turned out to be the “worst in living memory” but noted that the Aintree Grand National earlier this month had returned better results.

Speaking to EGR this morning, the chief exec insisted Ladbrokes had maintained a consistent startegy across the two festivals but noted that those that got “hurt” at Cheltenham had adopted a more cautious approach at Aintree.

And Mullen added that the consistent approach appeared to be working with growth across KPIs.

“Even at Cheltenham with the extreme race to the bottom we still saw a growth of 23% and 31% in actives and stakes,” Mullen said. “You have to make sure you recruit the right customers and that is why we don’t get involved in high CPAs or big bonus pushes,” he added.