Info about the bookmaker
Ladbrokes is an established British bookmaker licensed in Gibraltar and UK with online betting and gaming service since 2000. This renown and trusted company with over 15,500 employees in 2,600 betting outlets across five different countries (over 2100 betting shops in the UK, almost 300 in Belgium, more than 200 in Ireland, over 80 in Spain) is now the world’s largest fixed-odds betting company.
It is worth noticing that Ladbrokes has the second biggest retail presence on the high street after the post office as in 2006 more than £12 billion was staked with Ladbrokes. The bookmaker is also affiliated to IBAS (Independent Betting Arbitration Service).
Ladbrokes dates back to 1886 when Schwind and Pendleton came together to act as commission agents for horses trained at Worcestershire's Ladbroke Hall. A few years later, the name Ladbrokes was adopted when Arhur Bendir joined the company and changed the emphasis from backing horses to laying them as a bookmaker. Although very successful for almost half a century, the betting agency stagnated by the 1950s as its old-fashioned owners had a policy of allowing only very rich people to open accounts.
The situation changed in 1956 as Ladbrokes was acquired by new owners Cyril Stein and Max Parker who allowed people of all classes to place bets with Ladbrokes. In 1961, betting shops were legalized by the Government under the Betting and Gaming act, and in the following year Cyril Stein bought Ladbroke's first shop. As an encouragement to non-horseracing punters, Stein introduced fixed odds football betting. In 1967 Stein, now a chairman of Ladbrokes, floated the company on the London Stock Exchange. Soon afterwards the bookmaker boasted 400 betting shops and 300 credit office telephones.
1970s and 1980s were marked by further expansion and more profits for Ladbrokes which was successful on all fronts including Belgium and the US. In 1991, the company allowed telephone customers to bet with debit cards (at present 120,000 active customers use Ladbrokes telephone betting services). In 1990s, the firm had almost 2000 shops across Britain, Ireland and Belgium. Today, whether it is retail, telephone or online betting, Ladbrokes fares equally well as it used to in the past.
Ladbrokes.com's sports betting section contains a variety of sports including athletics, badminton, UK / US horse racing, floorball, football, GAA, snooker, trotting, speedway, tennis, volleyball and more.
Ladbrokes.com is particularly noteworthy for its offer on horse racing and football which features lots of extras. The website contains: Sports Radio (with horse racing, greyhound racing, and football coverage), Form & Statistics on horse racing, TurfTrax (detailed horse racing form guide), amazing Soccer Form Lab, and Stats Centre on soccer. Horse racing enthusiasts should try out an online game Raceclubs in which each online player has a stable of horses which are trained and which compete in races against other horses owned by other players from all over the world. Last but not least, there is a fantastic Ladbrokes TV with football (top matches from 11 lcountries English, Italian, Portuguese, Belgian, Danish, Polish, Brazilian, Mexican and American leagues, UEFA Champions League qualifiers, International matches), UK horse racing, tennis, rugby and cricket.
Ladbrokes' gaming offer comprises of amazing poker (Top 10 Website Hitwise 2009 Jan-Jun), casino (instant casino, software casino, live dealer casino, mobile casino, slot tournaments, blackjack tournaments) games (more than 120 games), superb bingo (UK Online Bingo Site Of The Year 2009 by WhichBingo.co.uk, Bingo Port award winner, Hitwise award winner 2009 Jan-Jun), financial bets, lottos (e.g. 49’s ball, Irish lotto, N.Y lotto, Spanish lotto), backgammon.
In 2009, the betting agency announced that it will deliver £116,000 in sponsorship to Northern Ireland’s most popular sports – rugby, soccer, ice hockey, and Gaelic sports.
Ladbrokes is also known in Britain for sponsoring greyhound racing cups such as Ladbrokes Gold Cup or Ladbrokes Golden Jacket. The company owns two greyhound tracks: Crayford Greyhound Track in London and Monmore Green Greyhound Track in Wolverhampton.
Ladbrokes also runs $1 Million poker tournament Ladbrokes Poker Millions.
Because of territorial restrictions, the residents of Australia, Italy Turkey, and USA cannot open accounts at Ladbrokes.com. Ladbrokes.it is, however, available for the Italians. ladbrokes does not accept sport bets from residents of Holland (only horse and greyhound racing, plus casino bets are accepted).
