Ladbrokes pulls out of talks with Sportingbet

In the general gambling news this week we learn that Ladbrokes has pulled out of takeover talks with online gambling group Sportingbet. This is the second time that Ladbrokes has walked away from a potential deal as we reported earlier in the year in the gambling news that talks with 888 group broke down due to disagreement on the price. It is common knowledge in the gambling community that Ladbrokes would have liked to do a deal with Sportingbet as that would have had a major effect on the live betting facility which is the speciality of Sportingbet but it appears that uncertainty over the liability of the Turkish operations which have also been in the gambling news may have been a deciding factor. Mr Richard Glynn, the CEO of Ladbrokes is quoted in the gambling news as saying that “This is not a failure. The biggest failure would be doing a deal that did not deliver shareholder value.” He is also quoted in the news as saying “Having completed our analysis we have been unable to agree a structure which delivers increased shareholder value within an acceptable regulatory environment.” The main feature is we believe at gambling.ie to be the Turkish operation and although Sportingbet are on the verge of selling, online gambling has been illegal for some years in the country and the operations of Sportingbet were run from overseas but there are still doubts about future liabilities. Mr Glyn said that there were no other specific takeover targets in the pipeline but they would be considered as the opportunities arose in the meantime the news in gambling is that Ladbrokes will focus on organic growth involving a brand relaunch and TV advertising. We await with interest what the relaunch will be and we shall continue to report in our general gambling news section what happens.