UK sportsbooks continue to shut down some of their businesses, casualties of the government’s decision to cut maximum bets from £100 to £2. Ladbrokes-Coral owner GVC plans to close up to 900 betting shops across both brands in the UK by the end of 2021.
MustardBet, which launched in 2018, will close its doors completely.
Ladbrokes-Coral Shops in the Irish Republic will avoid being hit by the plan but some of its shops in the North may be shut.
Blame the closings on lost revenues from the decision to slash maximum stakes for in-store betting machines. The move will result in the closure of around a quarter of all UK betting shops—across all brands—and the loss of 12,000 jobs.
Such machines, called fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) do not affect betting shops in the Republic, where Ladbrokes operates nearly 140 shops, the Irish Examiner reports. However, the company’s shops in the North will be evaluated on the same basis as those in the UK.
Ladbrokes reported a 1 percent increase in net gaming revenue in its Irish operations for the first half of this year. However, Ireland was the weakest first-half performer for the company. By comparison the UK’s shops produced 10 percent growth and Belgium 12 percent.
Ladbrokes’ Irish division emerged from an examinership process four years ago 60 shops lighter and with 250 less employees.
In its latest trading update, covering the third quarter, GVC said net gaming revenue in its European Retail division—of which Ireland forms a large part—fell by 4 percent on a year-on-year basis. Total group revenue was down 1 percent.
In other GVC news, the company moved some of its online bingo, betting and gaming-facilitating computer servers to Dublin earlier this year as a contingency measure against a no-deal Brexit. The firm has also raised its annual core earnings forecast for the second time in three months as a joint venture cashed in on a booming online sports betting market in the U.S.
The group, which has a joint-venture with MGM Resorts International, said it got off to a good start with its BetMGM mobile app, launched in September in New Jersey.
Foreign markets have been a boon for firms like GVC, which also owns the Foxy Bingo brand, as more U.S. states allow legal online betting and other countries offer softer rules on gambling than in Britain.
MustardBet confirmed to SBCNews on October 14 that it has begun returning balances back to customers, another casualty joining ComeOn, BetBright, MintBet and EveryMatrix. The reasons for MustardBet’s exit are unknown to date. Latest Betting Offers said possibly the company failed to secure enough of a footing.
The company received kudos for declaring unsettled bets as winners unless a customer has multiple bets on the same event, in which case the bookmaker will reward the wager on best possible outcome. MustardBet will also keep its website open for a further 28 days to allow customers to clear their accounts. Customers will have no access after November 11.
Launched last year by former Cantor Fitzgerald executive Andrew Garrood, MustardBet aimed to become the industry’s leading low-margin bookmaker proposition, operating under the tagline “Winners Welcome.”
