Betfred Close to Securing Ladbrokes-Coral Stores
Published on by Andrew Mills
As the Ladbrokes-Coral merger enters its final stages, the Sunday Times has reported that Betfred have set their eyes on hundreds of betting shops, and is near completion in their purchase.Ladbrokes-Coral has been forced to sell a large number of betting shops as part of its merger completion, in order to secure UK competition approval.First announced in June of 2015, the Ladbrokes-Coral merger is worth £2.3 billion, the UK markets authority has previously ordered Ladbrokes-Coral to begin to sell off its retail assets in over 600 areas throughout the UK where they have identified that the merger could harm competition.
Betfred swoops in
Manchester based company Betfred, the fourth largest bookmaker in the UK with a portfolio of some 1,400 shops, has been reported to be willing to purchase 3-400 of the stores in the Ladbrokes-Coral inventory.The reports in the Sunday Times claim that under the leadership of founder Fred Done, Betfred’s retail bid has edged out that of its main competitor for the stores, Irish company Boylesports.John Boyle, founder of Boylesports, had, it was claimed, seen the sell-off of stores due to the Ladbrokes-Coral merger as an easy way to take further steps into the highly competitive and saturated UK betting market.
Surprising news
The announcement that it is Betfred who are leading the charge to take control of the betting shops that will become available due to the orders placed on Ladbrokes Coral will come as a surprise to many industry insiders.Betfred’s recent annual return showed a £76 million loss for the year leading up to September 2015, which is a way away from the over £30 million profit made in the previous year and a half.Betfred governance stated that the losses were due to its operations needing to readjust to new industry taxes and lower margins. Clearly the assumption is that the purchase of these extra betting shops will help to balance out these difficulties.