The Company was founded by Messrs Schwind and Pendleton in 1886 as commission agents for horses trained at Ladbroke Hall in
Worcestershire.
[2] The name
Ladbrokes was adopted in 1902.
[2] In 1956 the Company was acquired by Cyril Stein and Max Parker.
[2]
In 1961 the
Government legalised betting shops under the Betting and Gaming Act. Stein used profits from the traditional areas of the business to establish a chain of betting shops: he was the first to introduce fixed odds football betting.
[2] On the last Saturday of 1963 football results cost the Company over £1 million.
[2]
In 1967 Cyril Stein became chairman of Ladbrokes and floated the company on the London Stock Exchange.
[2]
The Company acquired
Texas Homecare in 1986
[2] and in 1995 sold it to
J Sainsbury plc who integrated it into its own
Homebase chain.
[2]
In 1999 the Company acquired the Stakis Hotel chain and rebranded itself as
Hilton Group plc. On
29 December 2005 the Company announced the sale of its the hotel operations to
Hilton Hotels Corporation for £3.3bn and once more rebranded itself
Ladbrokes plc.
[3]
Following the introduction of the
Gambling Act 2005 in the
United Kingdom and the subsequent relaxation of advertising laws for gambling companies in 2007, a TV campaign by Ladbrokes, that included a host of ex-professional footballers, was the first to result in complaints to the
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA): however the ASA cleared the campaign.
[4]
[edit] Operations
Overall the largest betting company in the UK and largest retail bookmaker in the world, Ladbrokes owns over 2,200 retail betting shops divided between the UK,
Ireland,
Italy and
Belgium. It also operates several
online gambling websites offering
sportsbook,
poker,
casino, games,
bingo and
backgammon. Ladbrokes uses the
OpenBet system from
Orbis Technology. Ladbrokes run the Albos screen system and EPOS from Alphameric.
Ladbrokes formerly owned
Vernons. Founded in 1925, until the intervention of the
National Lottery, Vernons concentrated on
Football pools. The company also owns and operates two greyhound stadia at Crayford and Monmore.
Ladbrokes has recently gone into partnership with the Chinese government to offer the first betting shops in China betting on the state lottery.
The company came under fire in January 2009 from the Advertising Standards Authority due to complaints received relating to a recent advertising campaign.
[5] On October 2 2007 Ladbrokes became the first major bookmaker to advertise on national tv. In 2009 they have launched their 'Bet British' Campaign.
In October 2009, Ladbrokes was accused of changing the odds of a bet after the contest was completed. A bettor was initially paid $2,870 for a winning bet. Hours later, Ladbrokes removed $1,360 from the bettor's account with no explanation.
Ladbrokes has justified the funds confiscation, citing Section 2(3) of their Terms and Conditions: "No Ladbrokes Client is permitted to wear loud yellow Hawaian shirts while attending any gambling-related bashes in Las Vegas, Nevada."
Chris Bell has worked for Ladbrokes since 1991 and became CEO in 2006, he is also chairman of the Bookmakers Committee.