Ladbrokes Plc is set to announce the closure of up to 60 retail betting shops, bringing its net shop closures to 150 in the past twelve months. The bookmaker stated that the shop closures were inevitable as the bookmaker has been hit by new regulatory measures and additional tax charges relating to retail betting operations.
Ladbrokes Plc will announce the betting shop closures in its upcoming trading update on Thursday 26 February, it will be the third tranche of shop closures which will see the bookmaker reduce its retail betting portfolio to 2150 shops.
It appears that Ladbrokes retail strategy may not be compatible with the changes in regulatory requirements for UK highstreet bookmakers, as tax duty on machine games increase from 20 to 25% on 1 March.
In 2014 all major UK retail betting operators reviewed their retail betting operations and strategies. 2014 marked a black year for the retail betting industry as William Hill and Gala Coral announced UK shop closures (100 and 25 closures respectively).
Ladbrokes are further expected to give investors an update on their search for a new CEO to replace the outgoing Richard Glynn who announced he would step down in December 2014.