Northwest Bookmakers, a subsidiary of major gambling operator Ladbrokes plc operating in Northern Ireland, saw losses of a little less than £36 million only a year after it reported particularly strong profits.
A spokesperson for Ladbrokes commented that the decrease was mainly due to “an accounting treatment on [their] retail estate”
The gambling operator also noted that Northwest Bookmakers has been trading well when the impairments on shops and property are excluded. According to latest financial accounts, the company faced a £44-million impairment charge last year.
Northwest Bookmakers is currently Northern Ireland’s biggest bookmaker, running a quarter of all the betting shop licenses there. Generally speaking, Ladbrokes operates 30 betting shops in Northern Ireland, with a dozen of those in Belfast and another dozen in Londonderry.
Over the past fiscal year, Northern Bookmakers saw the number of its staff members drop to 386. A number of betting shops were also closed in Northern Ireland during the period.
The overall business saw earnings go down 57% in the third quarter ended September 30, 2015. Ladbrokes attributed the decrease to higher taxes and costs related to marketing. Revenue from its UK business dropped 0.7% during the period in review as compared to the same three months of 2014 when financial results were bolstered by the FIFA World Cup.
Commenting on the operator’s performance during the third quarter of 2015, Ladbrokes CEO Jim Mullen said that they reflected the first two months of the organic growth strategy introduced by him. The said strategy was focused on aggressive investment and growth in the company’s multi-channel and recreational customer base across its UK retail, Australian, and online divisions.
Ladbrokes is to complete its planned merger with fellow gambling operator Gala Coral later this year. Once completed, the transaction would result in the creation of the largest chain of betting shops across the UK. The combined entity will operate more than 4,000 such shops, thus overtaking the current leader William Hill.
The merger between Ladbrokes and Gala Coral is the latest to be completed in a series of consolidations in the gambling industry. Recently, Paddy Power and Betfair as well as GVC Holdings and bwin.party joined forces to secure their further profitability in a market that is expected to become even more competitive in the years to come.
