Along with their royal un-wedding bombshell, Ladbrokes also released its most recent quarterly figures, which showed a 2.3% revenue rise and a 1.9% boost in operating profit (excluding high rollers). Operating profit from high rollers was £4.9m, off sharply from £12.9m the year before. If you choose to look at the period from Feb. 16 forward (and Ladbrokes management would really prefer that you did), revenue was up 4.2% year on year. Retail gross win from the machines in Lads’ shops was up 14.9%.
Ladbrokes also cut its net debt by £48.7m to £443.3m, but CEO Richard Glynn warned that the company expects “the economic climate in the UK to remain challenging in 2011 with consumer confidence and disposable incomes continuing to suffer.” However, the incomes of Ladbrokes’ lawyers no doubt didn’t suffer over the past quarter, despite the lack of result from all those meetings with 888’s attorneys, who also presumably ‘earned’ a nice payday. Next?