It’s not too often that a company would show any concerns when profits are up 128% –£51.1 million in 2010 compared to 2009’s £22.4 million– as Ladbrokes were for the Third Quarter this year, but hidden amidst those huge overall profits was a disturbing trend. Ladbrokes saw their poker revenue decrease by 27%, further evidence of a growing monopoly of online poker by just a few major sites.
Helping Ladbrokes more than double their 2009 Third Quarter profit was the fact that it was a World Cup year, as well as an unusually high amount of draws in the EPL –22 to be precise.
While Ladbrokes is mainly known for their sports-betting arm, the site has always had a steady flow of poker traffic, and saw good returns from their online poker room over the years. The 27% drop for Quarter Three comes on the heels of a 15.7% drop in poker revenue from Quarters One and Two.
Ladbrokes CEO Richard Glynn was confident the poker-arm of the site would rebound, and stated in a press release that “Ladbrokes has a great brand and a strengthened management team determined to drive operational improvements going forward. Though much remains to be done, I am encouraged by the progress we are making across the Group and I look forward to updating the market in February 2011.”
Poker News supplied by PokerNewsBoy.com