Ladbrokes Closing The Gap To William Hill
Published: Friday, July 22, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
LADBROKES CLOSING THE GAP TO WILLIAM HILL
Ladbrokes GBP 76 million takeover of 141 Welsh betting shops
The rivalry between William Hill and Ladbrokes intensified this week with the
announcement by the latter that it had bought 141 family run betting shops to
close the gap in outlet numbers.
The deal brought Ladbrokes into equal contention with William
Hill as the UK’s biggest bookmaker following the deal.
By acquiring control of the Jack Brown network, Ladbrokes increased its presence
in Wales five-fold to 156 outlets, bringing a windfall of GBP 76 million for
the sellers, which include members of the Brown family who have run the business
since 1927.
Unfortunately, it may have put a question mark over the jobs of 70 staff at
the head office of Jack Brown in Pontypridd, South Wales, which Ladbrokes intends
to close.
The Jack Brown brand will disappear as all the betting shops, comprising 127
shops in Wales and a further 14 shops located in the Birmingham area, will be
rebranded as Ladbrokes over the next six months.
Talks over the deal lasted more than a year and took place at a time of considerable
consolidation in the betting industry.
William Hill overtook Ladbrokes as Britain’s biggest bookmaker in May when
it struck a deal for 624 betting shops from rival Stanley Leisure in a deal
worth GBP 504 million (see InfoPowa report).
It then sold 28 of the sites to the Tote earlier this week as it sought to ease
competition concerns from the deal.
William
Hill has 2,174 shops in the UK and Northern Ireland, giving it a slight
advantage over Ladbrokes which will now trade in 2,111 outlets.
Ladbrokes – owned by leisure giant Hilton – expects the Jack Brown
group to contribute GBP 4 million to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation
and amortisation between July and December.
The group will install its state-of-the-art technology in all the shops being
acquired, enabling gamblers to watch and wager on international horseracing
and sports as well as all UK track meetings.
Around GBP 12 million will be spent by Ladbrokes on refurbishing the stores
in a process lasting 18 months. Jack Brown employs a total of 520 staff.
