“The buck stops here”, says Ladbrokes chief
News on 27 Sep 2013
News on 27 Sep 2013
The dismal interim management statement from online and land gambling group Ladbrokes Thursday was followed by media interaction with senior executives in which chief executive officer Richard Glynn accepted full responsibility for the company’s performance, and the chief financial officer revealed difficulties in ending the Ladbrokes contract with software provider Microgaming.
The difficulty with Microgaming appears to centre on the termination dates enshrined in the contract with Ladbrokes, although the Ladbrokes execs declined to give details after CFO Ian Bull revealed that the betting company was “…no longer planning for migration from Microgaming until our contract ends in 2014”.
Glynn hinted at attempts to gain an early release from the Microgaming contract, telling reporters that there were multiple factors involved such as how much an early release would cost and concerns in Microgaming about assisting Playtech as a major business competitor. Negotiations were continuing and discussions were on-going on a weekly basis, Glynn revealed.
Ladbrokes is in the process of moving its digital operations over to Playtech , having been a Microgaming licensee for many years.
In the meantime there are clearly problems that have impacted the online casino operations at Ladbrokes due to what the executives referred to as “dual running” on two competing e-gaming platforms.
The Ladbrokes plan now appears to be a sportsbook migration to Playtech’s IMS back office by the first quarter of 2014, followed by a switch of the gaming activities to a “primary” Playtech platform in Q2-2014.
In accepting responsibility for the digital underperformance, Glynn said that his company had underestimated the impact some of the changes would have on the business. He gave as an example the transition to Playtech’s Mobenga mobile platform, the problems associated with dual providers and the disruption of job cuts, where Ladbrokes is to let go some 220 employees.
With Ladbrokes shares shedding 10 percent of their value following the interim statement Thursday, Glynn said: “There is only one person accountable and that is me. I am big enough to accept that as chief executive I will be judged on results.”
