Bookmaker Ladbrokes have reported a positive return from their first quarter of 2016. They have revealed that revenue was up 10% for them and that was in spite of this year’s Cheltenham Festival being the worst ever for them.
The bookmaker was hit very hard at the Cheltenham Festival 2016 as we are all operators. That was because of a string of favourites taking wins at the Festival, like Annie Power in the Champion Hurdle, Vautour in the Ryanair and the heavily backed Vautour in the Arkle. So bookmakers took some heavy blows, but Ladbrokes were keen to stress that a lot of their rivals were making offers of bets that didn’t make any business sense.
Chief executive Jim Mullen said: “At Cheltenham we were reminded of the intense competition with offers and pricing at levels which, in our view, abandoned bookmaking principles.
“We competed hard but refused to pursue unsustainable strategies.”
He went on to say that gambling was for his customers, not his business: “I’ve always said we’re in the gambling business, we don’t gamble… I thought Cheltenham was a race to the bottom.”
Ladbrokes and other bookmakers though were given a break though at the running of the Aintree Grand National as though as 33/1 shot Rule The World came through for the win.
Ladbrokes also confirmed that it has a £3m liability if Leicester City wins the Premier League.
