From the Blue Index blog

Dont bet on Ladbrokes
May 15th, 2009

Shares in bookmaker Ladbrokes (LAD) were looking like a good recovery play up to this morning, having regained over 50% of their value after the October low of 133p last year

But this morning, Ladbrokes reported a 34% slump in profits for the first four months of 2009. Profits from big spending high rollers tumbled to just GBP25m from GBP40m in 2008, with punters enjoying a particularly good Cheltenham Festival in March. These abnormal gross win margin levels, increased free bets and unfavourable cost phasing in eGaming against the previous year resulted in the profits slump, although CEO Chris Bell was at pains to point out the rate of decline is not representative of our expectations for the year, and he said the decline has already given way to more normal trends in May. And overall, added Chris Bell, the general resilience of the business and strong cost controls gives us confidence in the outturn for the full year.

But brokers Noble, Shore Capital and Daniel Stewart all see the results as disappointing and weaker than expected, particularly given that results at rival William Hill are strong and in stark contrast

Full transcript here
http://blog.blueindex.co.uk/2009/05/dont-bet-on-ladbrokes/

Hic!

LAD doing well today, WMH is doing even better.
2517

I suspect LAD being dragged up by the reasonable figures from WMH.
Be careful as anyone in profit here on the bounce will exit sharpish, imo.

Shares mag has it as a "high-risk buying opportunity for the brave" at 140.3

Do ya feel lucky?

Trafalgar reduces Ladbokes shorting position

Trafalgar Asset Managers has reduced its short position in Ladbrokes shares.

Having previously held a short position equivalent to 0.46% of the issued share capital of the bookmaking firm, Trafalgar says this was reduced to 0.28% on 21 October 2009.

Starting to look interesting for us mortals!

Now 123P ish. I noticed a 112p TP by 1 analyst.
2517

Business Financial Newswire 26.10.09
"Bookmaking group. Ladbrokes says that the 5% rump of shares not taken up in the rights issue have been placed at 136p per share.

In the open market this morning, the shares were trading at a mid-market price of 138.0p, up 0.6p since the market open."

How things have changed!!! Currently 123p.

ladbrokes caught my eye today as it seems to have so many TA positives going for it bar the market as a whole in general but in time Im sure we will see a recovery here.

The inverse head and shoulders is also covering a floor on the stock and if we go with normal TA rules the pattern would lead to approx a 30 point gain from breakout.

Ive bought today, one to keep an eye on.

ditto wm hill

Will have a look cheers cyners.

Added a few more here, way too cheap imho.

Missed this is must have come out late that day....

2009 2010
Date Rec Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p)

Daniel Stewart
07-12-09 BUY 170.40 18.83 3.50 161.30 14.45 7.00

Results tomorrow.

Final Results.

Financial Results



Group net revenue(1) of 963.7 million (2008: 1,052.9 million)

Group operating profit(1)(2) of 168.5 million (2008: 250.7 million)

High Rollers operating profit of 66.9 million (2008: 80.1 million)

Interest(3) of 44.1 million with blended interest rate of 4.9%

Profit before tax(3) of 191.3 million (2008: 265.6 million)

Effective tax rate(3) of 15%

Earnings per share(3) of 21.7 pence (2008: 32.2 pence(4))

Cash generated by operations was 226.0 million

Group net debt was 694.2 million at 31 December 2009 (31 December 2008: 987.1 million) with undrawn committed bank facilities of 428.1 million

As announced at the rights issue, the Group will not be paying a final dividend, giving a total dividend for 2009 of 3.5 pence per share.(5)

Corporation Tax Settlement


TIDMLAD

RNS Number : 5125K
Ladbrokes plc
21 April 2010

?
Corporation Tax Settlement

Ladbrokes plc has reached a settlement with HM Revenue and Customs ("HMRC")
which covers substantially all outstanding items in respect of tax years through
to 31 December 2007. Ladbrokes expects a cash receipt in 2010 of approximately
GBP80 million in respect of corporation tax repayable from HMRC.

The settlement results in the recognition in the 2010 Income Statement, within
the tax charge, of a GBP262 million tax credit in relation to prior years. Of
this credit, GBP216 million relates to current tax, and GBP46 million relates to
the recognition of a deferred tax asset. This asset primarily reflects the
recognition of tax losses available for offset in future periods.

The finance charge in 2010 will be reduced by approximately GBP20 million to
reflect the interest consequences of the settlement.

Our guidance for the effective accounting tax rate over the medium term remains
unchanged at 19%. We anticipate that the cash tax rate over the same period
will fall to about 15% to reflect the utilisation of tax losses.

bottom? or cotton?

LAD in early stage talks with 888

The price action on LAD has looked encouraging ever since the bottom two weeks ago, Friday's action particularly so - possibly through insiders trading on expectation that the 888 rumour would crystallize over the weekend.

Bookmaker Ladbrokes is due to update the market on recent trading. The City will be looking for thoughts on the chain's 600m takeover talks with online gaming firm Sportingbet ahead of the October 17 deadline. Analysts at Shore Capital said in a note last week that, at Sportingbet's current share price, the market could be already discounting on the basis that no deal will be forthcoming. "If this is the case, then Ladbrokes clearly needs to provide a credible roadmap for how it intends to reinvigorate its online operation either organically or via other acquisition targets," they said.

Ladbrokes' woes could be coming to an end following profit boostBookmaker attempts to put failed digital strategy behind it as 50% online profit drop in line with expectations
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Email Simon Neville
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 August 2012 15.42 BST Jump to comments (0) If you ever want a lesson in how to control market expectations you only need to look at the masterclass given by the country's second-biggest bookmaker, Ladbrokes.

The company saw an 11% rise in operating profit to £106.9m, on revenues up 8% to £529m in the first six months of the year.

But operating profits on its digital arm dropped a devastating 50% from £29.7m to just £15m over the same period after boss Richard Glynn decided to invest £50m on a new digital strategy, which revolved around improving its website.

Whereas more established bookies have snapped up up-and-coming online rivals, Glynn decided the best course of action was to spend the money in-house rather than make an acquisition.

But the decision was a failure – the website has been delayed around 12 months after users complained, and computer glitches meant the company could not transfer its database from the old website to the new.

All at a time it was hoping to cash in on the Euro 2012 football and a well-known sporting event taking place in London this summer.

Meanwhile, bigger rival William Hill continues to grow and saw profits up, while its digital offerings have been well-received.

So, with such a pounding taken due to its digital strategy, why are shares up 2.2p at 156.9p, especially when online is one of the fasting growing areas in betting?

The answer is, Ladbrokes put its hands up pretty early on this, admitting its problems and attempting to move on.

Nothing was fudged to sound more positive than it was, and investors and analysts were kept updated.

The company also did the unthinkable (when you consider how long it took the likes of Bob Diamond et al to stand aside) by sacking Richard Ames, the director responsible for the disaster.

Today, analysts were broadly in agreement that Ladbrokes could and should improve.