Ladbrokes tumbles to £51.4m half year loss

The overall revenue for the group was up from £577.8m to £585.4m and group operating profits fell from £56.8m to £38.9 a drop of 31.5 per cent.

Mr Mullen, who took over as boss earlier this year, added: “Our first-half results reflect the challenge facing Ladbrokes”.

Tough times for bookies have led to increased consolidation in the market: hence Labrokes’ proposed £2.3bn tie-up with rival Gala Coral, announced last month.

That said, Ladbrokes did enjoy notable growth within its digital business, with revenue from this division up 6.9% to £112.2 million. “The results clearly show why we need to change and why we need to do so quickly”, chief executive Jim Mullen said. For the half-year it was down by more than three-quarters, from 4.3p to 1p.

If these results demonstrate further success from Coral it could encourage Ladbrokes’ shareholders that the merger will, eventually, give them exposure to an attractive growing business.

For now, Mullen is focusing on regaining customers by plowing money into both traditional and non-traditional channels, while seeking to close underperforming shops. Ladbrokes also said it wants to double net revenue from its Australian business over the period.

Ladbrokes published headline interim results on 24 July when it announced the capital raising, profits warning, dividend cut, new strategy and merger with Coral.

Ladbrokes has now parted ways with former chief exec Richard Glynn, after he failed to coax its online arm into thriving. The shift in the industry since then may increase its chances, with online gaming having grown to become a mainstream alternative to visiting a betting shop.

In July, we set out an organic plan to create a better business in 2017 with clear targets. While doing this removes the short-term thinking that had come to dominate our actions, we recognise it does create short-term impacts on our profitability. Together, Ladbrokes and Coral control about 14 percent of the United Kingdom digital gambling market.

Shares in Ladbrokes were trading down 0.1% at 109.90 pence Tuesday morning.