Ladbrokes benefits up highly on 'bookie friendly' results

Ladbrokes has reported a ₤ 25.2 m revenue for the yohaig code first 6 months of the year compared to in 2015's ₤ 51.4 m loss.

The bookie states this strong, external efficiency remains in part due to "sporting gods" being on its side.

It mentions a run of "bookmaker friendly" results, like that of the European Championship, where England and Northern Ireland exited early.

Ladbrokes, which plans to combine with competing Coral, says a run of "client friendly" outcomes will follow.

It states it remains in talks with prospective purchasers for around 400 stores it has to cost the merger to go through.

The results reveal that consumers are responding favorably to the company's new strategy "at a time when the sporting gods have usually been on our side and we've enjoyed some practical bookmaker friendly results", stated chief executive, Jim Mullen.

"History would highly dictate that such a run of outcomes in our favour would see client staking suffer, but encouragingly these numbers securely buck that pattern and integrate strong staking and a good margin."

"However, 130 years of experience in sports wagering has shown us that we will endure a run of client friendly results and margins will normalise," he included.

Biggest bookie

Ladbrokes, the UK's second-biggest bookmaker, revealed its scheduled ₤ 2.3 bm merger with Gala Coral, the third-biggest, in July last year.

The deal will make it the largest bookie in the country, however last month the Competition and Markets Authority, external said it had determined 642 regional areas where the yohaig code merger would hit competition.

It said the 2 companies need to offer in between 350 and 400 look for the merger to be cleared.

In its results statement, Ladbrokes said it was "appealing" with potential purchasers and remained enthusiastic that a competitive process might be finished by the end of September. It would then want to start "considerable" restructuring of business before the end of the year.

Ladbrokes' shares were up 5% in morning trading.