Bettingmarket's online gambling industry weekly wrap
William Hill PLC announced that, following a strategic review by William Hill and Codere of Victoria Apuestas, their joint venture in Spain, the parties have today agreed to the gradual withdrawal of William Hill from the joint venture over the coming months. Hills cited regulatory and economic factors as the principal causes of its decision. Victoria Apuestas currently trades across 98 locations within the Madrid and Basque regions. William Hill also recently left the Italian betting market, highlight the fact that thorny regulatory matters alongside spiralling costs, intense competition and "cultural distance" make it extremely difficult to crack the newly liberaliised European betting markets. Supporters of the European Court of Justice's ruling in Placanica, should wake up and smell the cheese...
As though typifying the problems associtaed with cracking the newly liberalised European betting markets, Ireland's Paddy Power announced that it had entered the Australian betting market, having paid AUD48.5m (€27.2m) to acquire a 51% stake in Sportsbet Pty Ltd. Sportsbet is licensed to undertake business throughout Australia by the Northern Territory Racing Commission, and the company owns 19.98% of International All Sports Limited, which has just entered into a binding agreement to sell its international Canbet businesses to Yin Khing Investments.
Despite the success of 100/1 shot Mon Mome in the Aintree Grand National, Ladbrokes startled the market with a 34% drop in profits. Group gross win was flat for the period against tough comparatives. Group profit for the period declined 34%. In UK Retail total gross win declined by 4%. OTC gross win reduced by 7%. Average weekly gross win per gaming machine rose 5% to £708. Like for like gross win in ireland at constant currency was down 21%. In E-gaming net revenue was down 2%; whilst telephone betting net revenue fell by 54%. Ladbrokes' shares took something of a whack - down 10%. So this is resilience?
This summary of the week's online gambling news was brought to you by Bettingmarket.Com - Europe's foremost free-to-broadband betting industry journal. Your number one source for free gambling industry intelligence.
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