The rumours around the potential merger of the two industry leaders started a few months ago and now this multi-billion worth union is a fact. The two British leading betting companies will merge their businesses to become the UK’s largest gambling company, which will be called ‘Ladbrokes Coral’. The only part of Gala Coral Group which will stay independently run will be their bingo division, which is one of the most popular online bingo brands.
The new entity will run nearly 4,000 betting shops and will have more than 30,000 employees. Thus, ‘Ladbrokes Coral’ will dethrone the current leader, William Hill, which have about 2.300 betting shops and 26% of the UK market share. This deal offered Ladbrokes the opportunity to take the lion’s share of the market and actually overtake it. The enlarged company will become the biggest player on the UK online gambling market. Ladbrokes’ main former rivals are William Hill (2,300 betting shops), Paddy Power (7.9% market share) and Betfair (10.2%).
Since the duplication in the back offices of the two companies will be removed, the new group will cut significant costs (£65m/year) and will make their business more effective.
‘Ladbrokes Coral’ will be traded on the London Stock Exchange market and will list its new shares. FTSE 250 company Ladbrokes will issue new shares to Gala Coral’s owners, who will receive 48.25% of the company and the other 51.25% will stay with Ladbrokes’ shareholders.
Ladbrokes’ CEO Jim Mullen was announced the boss of the new group and Andy Hornby, the former CEO of HBOS, will be appointed chief operating officer and will play a leading role in the new combined group. Along with these benefits, Hornby will receive a large bonus.
Jim Mullen, which was appointed the CEO of Ladbrokes just a few months ago, announced their further plans, which are focused into creating a new omni-channel platform and achieving a sustainable growth of their customer base across multiple channels. Thus, the customers will engage anywhere via seamless experience and the company will benefit from substantial cost synergies.