Casino news reports on Ladbrokes drop in profits

Not strictly pure general casino news but nevertheless interesting is the fact that Ladbrokes makes special mention of the fact that Irish gamblers are partially responsible for a drop in first half profits for the company. Apparently Ladbrokes reported a reduction in first half profits of 16.8% and one of the reasons was that Irish horse backers got the better of them at Cheltenham; good for the Irish we say here at casinos.ie. Richard Glynn the relatively new Chief Executive also mentioned that the firm lost £2 million on the Champions League Final with so called high rollers having a major damaging effect on the results. Unusually Mr Glynn made no direct reference to the online casino business but did say that digital profits were up 6.5% which we assume includes the online casino business as well as in play markets. Notable also in the general casino news was the fact that “corrective structural action” had increased machine margins by 15% which we take to mean that adjustments were made to the win percentage at the in shop machines although that is only our interpretation of the those words. If you intend to play casino games you are better off playing in an online casino rather than at the machines in the betting shop. Needless to say that Mr Glyn was also questioned in the general casino news about the state of the takeover of Sportingbet but no information was forthcoming other than to mention that the operation in Turkey which could apparently be illegal would have to be removed and separated out. Ladbrokes share price continues to make little progress since the new Chief Executive but a dividend continues to be paid as profits are still being reported. Ladbrokes has been in the general casino news a lot recently but no takeovers or mergers have yet been finalised..