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Ladbrokes review
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The roots of Ladbrokes can be traced right back to the late 19th century to a horse training agency in Warwickshire.
In what was a turbulent time where the infamous Peaky Blinders were running riot across the Midlands, Ladbrokes held strong and built up their empire throughout the 20th century, not without one or two scandals and regulatory bumps along the way though. Ladbrokes now sits on a sprawling estate within Stakersland and its rich history of ups and downs is still far from over with it currently sitting inside a merger with another famous UK-based bookmaker, Coral. The Ladbrokes betting estate is still very much a firm favourite amongst the Brits though, as well as many other stakers from further abroad. In fact, Ladbrokes still caters to a 2.5M community of stakers who come to bet and watch the live broadcasts of their favourite racetracks from across the globe. Up to 80% of their revenues come from the Brits alone, so you can expect to see a British-inspired sportsbook here with the rest of the wagers coming from Ireland, Belgium, and Australia. Due to this heavy British inspiration, the popular sports at Ladbrokes are horse racing and the greyhounds with live in-play football also generating a lot of interest from stakers, too. Regardless of their strong traditions on horse racing, the marketing team still have their ears to the ground which has resulted in extra esports betting rooms being created with the Ladbrokes estate. Top tournaments based on CS:GO, DOTA, and League of Legends can all be found, so if you do follow the online world of esports then Ladbrokes has you covered.
The upper limits of the Ladbrokes payouts are set to £1 million for many of the top tier events including UK and Irish horse racing, full international football matches, the top English football leagues, the top European leagues like La Liga, Bundesliga, and Serie A, as well as competitions like the Champions League and the Europa League. The limit then drops down to £100,000 for all the lower leagues on the international scene. Other popular sports like golf, cricket, tennis, and the major US sports all come with £500,000 limits. Sports like motor racing, darts, and snooker offer a £250,000 limit and the lesser-known sports of cycling, chess, handball, and skiing drop to a limit of £100,000. Payouts on special bets and one-offs can drop to as low as £10,000. If you’re interested in the casino side of Ladbrokes, then the maximum that you can win (apart from jackpots) is set to £250,000 in total. Our maths experts here at Stakers HQ have calculated that it would take them to be up and running for 1.5 days to cover that top £1 million payout. If you win big on the live casino then it would only take them 9.5 hours to balance out that £250,000 winning amount. A total of 48 hours to satisfy those top limits is still good going though, especially for the loss-making GVC Holdings. However, due to them being publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange then we would imagine they would quickly source a million pounds to avoid any negative press coverage if they were struggling to source the funds during any dry betting patches.
Ladbrokes enjoy a total annual gross gaming revenue of £480M which is now being generated by their huge 2.5M active staker community, who are known to be spending £25-30 per month. The top £1,000,000 limits help to offer excellent value for stakers, too.
If we turn our eyes to the balance books of Ladbrokes, then we can see that they are generating around £44 Million per month with an average spend of around £25-30 per staker. The annual profits then suggest that the Ladbrokes team are raking in roughly £480M excluding expenditure. This considerable amount is sure to be well-received by their loss-making owners GCV Holdings who are yielding -6% from their overall £3.6 billion gross profits at a net loss of £140 million. The development of credit markets had helped to boost the network of the Ladbrokes Coral Group across the world of Stakers to 3,000, which has now also turned out to be a loss-making enterprise during the present-day period. If we look to the rivals of Ladbrokes, then William Hill would be one of the top bookies with a community of 2.9 million active stakers a month. Looking at their ticket sales, it is estimated that stakers spend around £25-30 per month with an annual gross gaming revenue of £870 million from its online operations. Will Hill’s final profits are believed to be around the £143 million mark. Paddy Power is also a big enough bookmaker to rival Ladbrokes and their £420 million gross gaming revenue, from Flutter’s £1.12 billion total, remains profitable and generated a total of £150 million in 2019, although this was down -38% from the previous year.
Ladbrokes Offers
Truly a British concept with a long history that started out as a horse training agency, followed by an attempt to manage the hotel business together with Hilton Group. Ladbrokes has managed to build a name that inspires a million British stakers every month to come along and enjoy the live-based betting entertainment.
| United Kingdom | Australia | Ireland | Belgium | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| monthly | 1.9M | 275K | 167K | 104K |
| License |  |  |  |  |
Social Buzz
The profile has around 47 reviews in total with 37 complaints on Askgamblers, 18 of which are marked as resolved. The majority of staker complaints here include the delayed withdrawals, poor customer service again, and cancelled payouts.
The rating of Ladbrokes is currently 3.2 out of 5 with a total of 73 comments and 378 votes. Long payout waiting times and numerous countries being restricted are the main issues being mentioned. One thing that did show up was the consistency of ratings since the profile was created.
Bonus clash
Ladbrokes are using the classic tactics when it comes to British sports bonus banners. You will often see these types of promotions flying across other UK-inspired bookies here at Stakersland as well. It’s a good mix of deals once you sign up with enough deals spread out over the top sports. First up though, some interesting comments from fellow stakers on the Ladbrokes promotional schedule.
“I really love their welcome bonus. For a simple £5 first bet, you receive 4 free bets to the total amount of £20, which is extremely generous in my books.”
“I prefer Ladbrokes for their free promotions. 1-2 FREE is a nice chance to get an easy £100 for any stakers. No deposits, no qualifying bets, just log in and get the money.”
“I would like to see many more promotions on their page. They do provide free bets as a welcome bonus reward, but what about other options? You have acca insurance only and that’s about it for me.”
“Unfortunately, Ladbrokes do not provide us with any kind of the standard promotions that we prefer to see nowadays. Extra places and free bonus offers are good, but the lack of free bet clubs or any kind of free bet promotion won’t attract new stakers.”
For all new members, you are provided with a £20 free bet in return for a simple £5 bet after you open your Ladbrokes account. There are a number of market standard deals here as well, such as odds boost, acca insurance, extra places, and best odds guaranteed that are available for both horse and greyhound races.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Get $20 in Free Bets when you stake $5 on sports!  | free bet club | Place qualifying stakes to a total of $5 win or $5 each-way at odds totalling 1/2 or greater | Promotion is available to UK & Irish stakers opening a new account |
A well-balanced promotion from Ladbrokes for new members and without any unnecessary small text to confuse you. Start your adventure with a $20 free bet credited in 4x bet instalments of $5. The promotion is available for new stakers making a deposit and a qualification bet of $5 at odds of 1/2. For a single line accumulator bet, each individual selection of the bet must be at odds of ½ or more, and only the win parts of win/each-way bets will qualify. The qualifying bets must also be made within 14 days of the account opening. Not bad at all, moving further on…
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
1-2-FREE | Challenge | Predict the score of three matches | Prepaid Cards, PayPal, PaysafeCard, Neteller, and Skrill are restricted |
The good old times are back with this free-to-enter sports prediction game where stakers are required to predict the correct score from the 1-2-FREE weekly schedules. For those who correctly predict the scores for 90 mins, you will get rewarded with £100. Predictions must be entered before kick-off of the first game in the promo schedule and there is a maximum of one entry per customer per game each week.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Odds Boost | boost | Find the markets with | Restricted to one boost per day |
The good old odds boost is available across the kingdom of Stakers and Ladbrokes has resorted to offering it to their own stakers as well. The promotion is limited to specific events and markets according to the schedule and this particular promotion restricts stakers to using it once per day.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
#GetAPrice | Challenge | Tweet @Ladbrokes with #GetAPrice | Cannot be combined with other bets |
The Ladbrokes team have mastered the art of combining bonuses through the social networks. You might well have even been reading the promotion name ‘#GetAPrice' over and over from influencers trying to persuade you to get involved. Under this promotion, the Ladbrokes team expect you to send that hashtag message through your Twitter profile with your own custom bet and they will send you their suggested price. Prices are subject to fluctuation as it states in the terms and conditions, and you can take it or leave it.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Load up your football accas and enjoy Money Back as a Free Bet | acca insurance | Place a 5+ accumulator bet on pre-match events and specific markets | Restricted for deposits made with Prepaid Cards, PayPal, PaysafeCard, Neteller or Skrill |
The Ladbrokes marketing team have another market standard offer here in the shape of ‘acca insurance’. You will get rewarded with a $10 free bet if one selection of your 5+ acca placed on prematch events loses. The qualification legs of the accumulator are limited to the match result, both teams to score, match result & both teams to score, correct score, or total goals over/under markets. Each selection of the accumulator must have minimum odds of 1/10 and the accumulator as a whole must have combined odds of 3/1. Your free bet will be credited upon the settlement of your qualifying bet.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Extra Place Races | Extra Places | The odds are detailed on the schedule page | Standard place terms will apply if a specific number of horses run |
Yet another British standard offer with Ladbrokes offering additional places for the Horses and Greyhound races in accordance with the daily UK schedule of races (and sometimes abroad). Keep an eye on the minimum number of runners required in each race for the promotion to be valid.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Best Odds Guaranteed - Horse Racing | Best Odds Guaranteed | Wager on Horse Racing events at the early prices, board prices, singles and multiples | Restricted for deposits made with Prepaid Cards, PayPal, PaysafeCard, Neteller or Skrill |
Ladbrokes are offering the best prices for horse racing events with a decent maximum cap of $25,000 per staker per day. It’s a simple deal and should the starting price return higher, you will be paid out at the bigger price. There is no opt-in required and real money single bets on the day of the event are subject to the terms and conditions, furthermore, all bets placed after the off will not qualify for the offer.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Best Odds Guaranteed - Greyhounds | Best Odds Guaranteed | Take the price - including early prices, board prices, singles, and multiples | Restricted for deposits made with Prepaid Cards, PayPal, PaysafeCard, Neteller or Skrill |
In what is a significantly higher maximum cap of £50,000 per staker per day, Ladbrokes extends their famous best odds guaranteed for the greyhound races. Again, should your starting price return higher, your bet will receive the returns at the higher odds. And again, as above, there is no opt-in required and the same wagering and ‘after the off’ bet rules apply.
Conclusion
The Ladbrokes promotion monitors follow the classic British approach without twists or sneaky turns, as you might notice at the likes of Paddy Power and the Skybet premises. We found the bonus conditions to be straightforward and without all those hidden surprises in the small print. You should expect exactly what you see from the capitalised text on the red banners of the Ladbrokes bonus promotions. The number of seasonal offers is quite limited though and there isn't much to look out for during the week, except for those schedules for races connected to the best odds guaranteed promotion. We do know that they offer the ‘bet & get’ style promotions from time to time, but those are often delivered by email for registered members only, and so it does pay to get signed up to their marketing newsletters and campaign leaflets.
Sports betting
Ladbrokes is home to a small team of highly skilled developers based in London with other teams working out of Hyderabad, India.
The Stakers sports betting team assess each of the online bookmakers and their featured betting tools here in the park. We keep a sharp eye on all the technology being used to ensure that you can experience the very best in sports betting entertainment. So, keep reading and we’ll explain to you what we found when uncovering the technology layers of Ladbrokes.
The London headquarters of Ladbrokes and Coral is home to a small team of Java developers that are specially selected from the top-rated list of Russell Group University graduates. This small team is accountable for the overall control and planning of the Ladbrokes system. However, a larger team of architecture developers are based further away in the city of Hyderabad, India.
Sports
The major sports for Ladbrokes are horse racing and greyhound races. The British and Irish racetracks include Hamilton, Haydock, Windsor, Naas, Roscommo, and tens of others. In France, they are taking bets on Marseille-borely, Vichy, and Enghien. In the USA, tracks include Delaware Park, Evangeline Downs, Grants Pass, and Gulfstream. The second major sport for Ladbrokes is football with its live in-play markets.
Betting slip
It seems obvious to us that both teams in Stratford and Hyderabad have spent quite some time bringing this betting slip alive, but there is more still to be done. Through extended reloads with each of the picks you are adding to the bet coupon, it ensures the overall odds security for Ladbrokes. The betting slip is available for both single and combined selections, and the system bets include custom options such as Super Yankee, Trixie’s, Goliath, and Super Heinz. The cashout feature is available for stakers as well through the ‘my bets’ area.
In-play stats
Live events are equipped with a visualisation widget as well as overalls that are updated during the course of the match. Head to head, standings, and present form data are available for major events and these are provided by Opta Sport. For the main division events and major horse races, Ladbrokes provides an exclusive video streaming service for stakers. The statistics coverage is not too impressive though with most of the matches being supplied with the live score only.
Betting markets
You would expect the betting markets to be well detailed here at Ladbrokes and it does show some truth with football offering stakers 174 pre-live markets and 109 live markets. Tennis offers 21 pre-live markets and 71 live markets, while basketball comes with around 86 pre-live and 30 live markets for any one event.
Margins
For all the detailed markets at Ladbrokes, the margins here are relatively high on the top events. The main football events include margins of 3.67% for pre-game bets and 7.6% for live events, tennis provides pre-match odds with the 8.47% margin and live margin reaches 7.72%, and basketball offers 4.17% for pre-live bettors and 5.49% for live odds across their markets.
Event results
For the major competitions in the UK, Ireland, and Europe, stakers are offered the latest form, head to head, top goal scorers, and various overalls. For the Premier league in the UK, there are also detailed breakdowns available that go right down to player level. There is no scoreboard and no information on the past matches available on the site though, with only the settled bet details being supplied.
| Sports | margins | live margins | markets | live markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tennis | 8.47% | 7.72% | 21 | 71 |
| football | 3.67% | 7.6% | 174 | 109 |
| basketball | 4.17% | 5.49% | 86 | 30 |
| ice hockey | 4.28% | 8.17% | 151 | 55 |
As mentioned in the table above, our Staker HQ statisticians has shown the margins at Ladbrokes to be lacking overall value across the top events. The live market margins in events connected to the Champions League shows some cause for concern for stakers with a huge 9.28% margin. Compare this to the likes of 888 Sport and Unibet with their 6.42% and 5.7% margins and you can start to see the clear lack of value amongst those specific, and popular, events.
Financial Limits
Our financial team take the time to bring together all the vital legal procedures carried out by each of the bookmakers who have made Stakersland their home. All these procedures are fact-checked before we present them in our uncomplicated summary table below. So, keep on reading and we’ll show you what to expect from the so-called experienced Ladbrokes financial team.
Payment Method Restrictions
Which payment methods are valid when claiming my bonuses?
All deposits made via Neteller, PayPal, PaysafeCard, Skrill, or via any pre-payment card will not qualify for the deposit bonuses at Ladbrokes.
The Influence of Third Party Agencies
What checks are being made and do they use any third party agencies?
In case the Ladbrokes team need any additional information outside the standard KYC procedure, all details will be requested, and the checks carried out by certified third party identity checking companies. This is all according to the Ladbrokes terms and conditions. There is not much within the terms of service about any automatic checks though, except those that we just briefly mentioned. When it comes to the KYC procedure, you are required to upload a photocopy, or take a picture, of an identification document (passport, ID card or driving license) including your full name, date of birth, place of birth, and photograph, as well as your full address. If the address on your license does not match, then you will be requested to send Ladbrokes a recent bank statement or utility bill from the last three months to further prove who you are.
Personal Data Transparency
Will they inform me about the automated checks being performed?
The Ladbrokes terms and conditions state clearly that fully automated checks are performed with the provided data. The process starts once the account is created.
According to the terms and conditions, the "Electronic age verification checks are carried out and whilst we aim to make the process as seamless and unobtrusive as possible it may be that further information will have to be obtained direct from you" followed by "The third party that we use is fully aware of its obligations under the Data Protection Act and will always act in accordance with its provisions".
The privacy policy does not make any mention to who they are sharing your personal data with. So, in our understanding, both of these terms and conditions require significant revisions to make clear who is viewing and why your information is being shared. According to our investigation results, we detected a number of trackers that follow you around the internet. Those include Google, Adsrvr, Adobe Marketing Cloud, Bing, Livt, Akstat, HotJar, Demdex, Snapchat, Bing, Taboola, Adnxs, Everest Tech, Rubicon Project, Twitter, and a number of others. There is nothing within their privacy policy that declares these trackers being in use and again these policies require immediate revision for improved transparency.
Social Media Communication
Will my financial disputes and complaints be answered on the social media profiles?
Ladbrokes do not respond to any of the Trustpilot comments, but at the same time they are maintaining active communication with stakers on the Askgamblers profile (although not all finance-related issues are resolved in the favour of stakers).
Gambling Anonymously
Are my banking transactions with the bookmaker private?
Ladbrokes do not provide a unique private identifier on bank statements. The name ‘LC International’ will appear next to all transactions in your banking documents and Ladbrokes do not provide any options to change this.
Withdrawal Timeframe & Common Complaints
How fast are the withdrawals and what do stakers complain about the most?
Withdrawals are usually approved within 24 hours and the overall times for Debit cards stands at 3-5 working days. E-wallets take another 24 hours after your transaction has been approved, bank transfers take 2-4 working days before hitting your account and finally, all instant banking will take 1-2 working days. Regardless of these stated times, there are still a number of complaints from stakers on Trustpilot that are connected to withdrawals being frozen due to extended verification procedures.
Player-Friendly Withdrawal Limits
What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal limits available?
According to the general terms and conditions, all payment methods will be capped at £5,000 per day. Should you wish to withdraw in excess of that amount, you will be required to establish your new limits with a customer service agent in relation to your individual situation.
Withdrawal Options & Additional Costs
What are my banking options when withdrawing my funds and do they add fees?
Ladbrokes offers withdrawals via Maestro, Mastercard and Visa, as well as EcoPayz, Dining Club international, Instant Banking, iDebit, Bank Transfer, Canadian EFT, Moneysafe, Much Better, Neteller, Skrill, PayPal, WebMoney, Luxon Pay, Pcard, Postepay, Viva cash, and Yandex money. There are no fees being applied to your withdrawals by Ladbrokes either, according to the general terms and conditions.
Regulatory Check Transparency
Are they clear about the Source of Funds and Source of Wealth procedures?
Ladbrokes has a dedicated FAQ page that provides all the necessary details concerning the Source of Funds verification policy. The account triggers and required document list are also both in place which helps to give stakers a full overview of the procedure.
Conclusion
Ladbrokes do provide their stakers with a wide range of payment options, but at the same time they feel that it is ok to cut the upper withdrawal limit to £5,000 per day. You can bypass this limit but only through an individual request with the Ladbrokes support team. This limit is, however, a violation of the LCCP codes established by the Gambling Commission which requires operators to remove limits that prevents stakers from withdrawing all their winnings at any one point in time. The transparency regarding your privacy is very low here with no details available about how exactly your information is being used, what checks they perform, and what market agencies are collecting the personal data from the Ladbrokes site. As it stands, there are around 30 trackers on the site that are designed to collect personal data and follow you across Ladbrokes and throughout your Stakersland journey. Furthermore, there is no established source of wealth procedure in place, nor are the customer support agents equipped with the necessary information regarding these issues, despite our attempts to retrieve these details time and time again.
Customer Support
The Ladbrokes customer support is available for registered stakers only, and there is no communication being offered for unregistered stakers associated with any of their onsite promotions. The responses that we received were mostly neutral and generic across technical topics or their present marketing offers and promotions. What we did find surprising was that some agents may leave the chat without replying to your additional questions. The contact channels currently available include live chat, email, and direct messages via their official Twitter profile, all of which come with a 24/7 service. Additionally, there is no mention of any SLA or other information relating to their level of customer service on the site. And so, we once again resort to our experienced and efficient Stakers team to examine and push the Ladbrokes support to test their levels of service in real-life situations.
Support Speed & Resolution
How fast do they reply to my general queries?
The live chat starts up in anywhere from 1-5 minutes and the agents get back in 2-3 minutes with an answer to general queries and questions about the site and services. Their communication is often template based and very much based on the script with little to zero levels of any personal touch being offered.
Live Chat Access
Is the online live chat tool available on the site?
The live chat option is available for unregistered stakers; however, the agents may close the chat upon their own discretion when it comes to bonus or ‘no deposit’ bonus queries. As we found out, there are no bonuses available for new stakers without a deposit being made. Elsewhere within the support team, we were calculating that it takes 3-4 hours for email requests to get answered.
Support Team Competency
How quickly will the support team reply to complex queries?
Complex queries will take on average around 3-4 minutes. However, these replies are mostly generic and many of them simply include a link to the Help section without any specific assistance being given.
Level of Technical Expertise
Are the support agents sufficiently trained to answer technical queries based on odds, margins, and markets?
For all sports related and technical queries, we found their replies to be robotic and not informative at all. It does feel like that a chat bot has been assigned here, however, when calculating the speed of the answers you can clearly see that they are human replies.
Unregistered Staker Support
Will the customer service team interact with unregistered stakers and will I get a free bet?
For stakers without a Ladbrokes account, the support representatives replied using mostly generic messages. They provided us with links to the promotion page after our ‘no deposit’ bonus requests.
Professional & Friendly Service
What type of response will I get when requesting a bonus from the service team?
During our bonus requests, we found the conversation to be neutral and the answers impersonal. The obvious tactic here was to push us to the welcome bonus package, which is what the agents continued to do time and time again.
Customer Service Knowledge
Will the agents provide the correct information about payment limits when compared to the terms and conditions on the website?
The information regarding withdrawal and deposit limits given over the live chat box was incomplete and there is an obvious lack of training. Customer service representatives are communicating in a ping-pong style nor are they aware about the internal specifics within Ladbrokes. It became apparent that our team knew more about their terms of service than the typical agent representative that we communicated with.
Willingness to Help Out
Will the support representatives help me navigate around their website?
On the matter of navigating the Ladbrokes site, we were provided with links to check up on the information ourselves, and there were no additional explanations being given by the agents.
Tolerance Levels
Does the support team have a high tolerance level for repeated bonus requests?
Upon our constant bonus requests, we found that their replies remained neutral and they did not provide us with any bonuses upon request. It came across as though the agents were deciding not to follow the guidelines and they did not care about what we asked. We might query something random about the weather and then receive a link to the homepage to ‘check for details’. A lack of interest and, more importantly, a complete lack of customer service.
Onsite Support Efficiency
How efficient is their onsite Helpdesk compared to the competition?
The Ladbrokes Help page includes a list of useful category headers and there is a convenient search box available, too. The information is divided into sections with a tree-like structure that helps you quickly find what you are looking for.
Conclusion
The customer service team at Ladbrokes is designed with purely small talk in mind. In as much that you will always have someone to talk with, but a useful solution is not something you should be expecting to receive. Responses are neutral and it is clear that there is not much training being given. They do very well with the ping-pong style communication although you very rarely get to a resolution that you are happy with. When it comes to technical aspects of the sports betting markets, such as odds and margins, they will simply advise you to visit the helpdesk to find your answers. Templates are often used, and their replies never really provide much detail. We can foresee this support team being replaced with a chat bot in the not so distant future, and you would probably not even notice the difference.
Conclusion
The customer service team at Ladbrokes is designed with purely small talk in mind. In as much that you will always have someone to talk with, but a useful solution is not something you should be expecting to receive. Responses are neutral and it is clear that there is not much training being given. They do very well with the ping-pong style communication although you very rarely get to a resolution that you are happy with. When it comes to technical aspects of the sports betting markets, such as odds and margins, they will simply advise you to visit the helpdesk to find your answers. Templates are often used, and their replies never really provide much detail. We can foresee this support team being replaced with a chat bot in the not so distant future, and you would probably not even notice the difference.
Should you ever run into any staker-related issues with the Ladbrokes customer services, then we hope that this short FAQ can help you out:
Are you able to complain with Ladbrokes?
If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your complaint provided by the support team, it may be escalated to a manager or a senior supervisor with an answer often being given within 48 hours.
Where to complain if they refuse the withdrawal?
UK stakers may raise a dispute with IBAS and all other stakers from elsewhere may submit their issues to the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner or the European ODR platform.
How do stakers rate the Ladbrokes customer service?
Stakers often complain about the attitude of the customer service agents. According to the reviews, the support agents are unhelpful, not understanding in any way and generally quite rude, especially when cutting off the chat without answering your questions.
Up or down
The 99.69% uptime rate of the overall Ladbrokes grounds shows a stable betting service and most of this can be tracked back to the hard work being done over in Hyderabad. Keeping those betting markets open for the multi-million staker community is no easy job and that 99.69% rate is definitely a respectable marker. If we look deeper into the loading times, then the Google Page Speed rating stands at 64/100 which is above the industry average but also shows some clear room for improvements.
TECHNOLOGY
The backend of Ladbrokes is based on the trusty Java 8 with a database solution from PostgreSQL. On the matter of communication logs, 99% of the requests are http queries and we feel that the websockets route would be the logical solution here. It would certainly help to reduce the current load times within the current Apache Kafka setup. The frontend is not too complicated either as this is constructed with a combination of standard JavaScript and an AngularJS library. The size of the JS code bundle is roughly 4MB, and this could be reduced to around 1MB which would have a positive effect on their mobile users.
DATA CENTER
The Ladbrokes servers are protected by Cloudflare, but the paths to their exact server location are inaccessible to the public. The choice of Cloudflare is obvious due to the large site and heavyweight Java problems. Memory allocation is a constant issue and even minor DDOS attacks might complicate staker access due to the associated high-load data problems. For this very reason, the use of Kafka and Cloudflare helps to cut down the number of servers.
SSL CERTIFICATE
The DigiCert certificate currently costs $2,000 per annum. The cost is drastically higher when compared with other rivals abroad and in the UK. The encryption algorithm is the standard 256-bit technology, along with the recommended key of 2048 bits, too. This DigiCert certificate is a Wildcard type that applies to all domains and subdomains of the ladbrokes.com betting and gaming service.
Our tech team look at Ladbrokes online as a competent development structure but due to its old and tired past, they tend not to include it in the current overall Stakersland rankings. The use of Java is considered by most to be too heavy a solution. Not to mention the huge overheads related to serving that multi-million staker community. Updates have been made and the introduction of Angular is a start, but there are obvious flaws within the code that are simply not acceptable in this day and age. From our perspective, it looks as though they have tried to alter an important cog in the wheel, but only gone through with it 50% of the way. The use of Apache Kafka to deliver the odds updates is again a plausible attempt but this option is only ever temporarily avoiding the inevitable.
countries where Ladbrokes is licensed
The Ladbrokes betting operation is managed by the Ladbrokes Coral group which, in turn, is owned by GVC Holdings. They have three main offices, two of which are located in the UK (the head office in London and another office in Nottingham), and one other office in Gibraltar which also happens to be their legal address at Suite 6, Atlantic Suites, Europort Avenue, Gibraltar. Further afield, Ladbrokes Australia has an office in Brisbane which is part of GVC Australia Pty Ltd. According to the Glassdoor site, the locations involved in the Ladbrokes operations are both London and Glasgow in the UK, Ireland, Tel Aviv in Israel, and Brisbane in Australia. So, there is more than meets the eye with Ladbrokes with many more working offices in operation, but the central hub certainly seems to be the UK offices with the second largest based in Ireland, followed by the team in Gibraltar.
Ladbrokes is officially licenced by the government of Gibraltar and the UKGC, which is currently under the name of LC International Limited. These licenses allow Ladbrokes to provide the following betting services: remote bingo, casino, pool and general betting (on both real and virtual events) and betting intermediary. Further afield, Ladbrokes also holds betting licenses that have been issued by the HM Revenue Commissioners in Ireland for sports betting, and they also have a German, Belgian, and Australian license in place as well.
The two core betting licenses from the UKGC and GGC allow the majority of stakers access to the Ladbrokes markets, however, additional licenses from the Irish, German, Belgian, and Australian authorities also help to expand their community.
Let us take you a bit further down Ladbrokes lane and fill you in on the major talking points of their long and turbulent past, which does happen to contain one or two legal issues being held against their historic name. From the top down, Ladbrokes is one of the leaders of the industry, but they are also currently part of the loss-making GVC Holdings Group. If we look back to the early years then 1979 was a fateful year with the uncovering of illegal marketing practices at their London casinos, with talks of bribing police officers to gain details on the high rollers at other rival casinos. This eventually led to Ladbrokes closing down their London casinos which was roughly 40% of their profits. Fast track to the turn of the millennium and the introduction of the Gambling Act 2005, we saw the relaxation of advertising laws which soon brought a Ladbrokes TV advert into question. The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) eventually cleared the advert, but they had to step in once again in 2009 to do exactly the same with Ladbrokes again pushing the letter of the law.
More recently in December 2018, Ladbrokes ended up paying £1 million in compensation due to a problem gambler who was found out to be stealing his betting funds from his own business clients. Then, only half a year later, the UKGC announced a £5.9 million penalty in line with them not complying with anti-money laundering and social responsibility rules. It was stated that between 2014 and 2017, there were not enough safeguards in place to protect people from gambling problems at the site. On the other side of the world in Australia, another fine was placed on Ladbrokes Australia and another GVC Holdings brand, Neds, for offering illegal gambling enticements within NSW. The overall fine was to the sum of 207,500 AUD and regulators called it ‘the biggest of its kind’ in New South Wales.
Now, a few words on the connection to the loss-making GVC Holdings Group. It might be news to many people that the Ladbrokes connection to GVC is actually not the first time in history that this has happened. Back in 1956, the company was bought for a reported £100,000 by Mark Stein and his nephew Cyril Stein. Fast forward again around 50 years and the group made a decision to remove all gambling operations outside of Europe which included casinos, racetracks, and bingo business across the US and South America. The big-money sales were all completed by 2001, and it was only a year before that they also sold a total of 27 casinos in the UK to the Gala Group for £236 million. So, now you have a better picture of the top-level view of Ladbrokes. In fact, many stakers might not know that the owner from 1999 to 2006 was actually the Hilton Group plc, and now we have seen the GVC full circle. In 2018, GVC reacquired the Ladbrokes Coral Group with a 53.5% share in what was reported to be worth around £4 billion. The Ladbrokes story continues on…
Questions
What documents do Ladbrokes require for account verification?
To establish staker account identity, Ladbrokes makes use of multiple unnamed sources according to their terms and conditions. However, they do provide a substantial list of documents that might be required when carrying out these checks. The usual documents are listed such as passports, ID cards, bank statements, utility bills, official certificates, and employment contracts, and as always, these need to be recent versions within the last 3-12 months depending on the type of document.
How long does it take them to settle the bets and payout?
Bets are normally settled shortly after an event has finished, but at times it may take slightly longer than expected to receive your returns or winnings during busier periods. Ladbrokes is using a number of suppliers for their sports betting data including the well-known Opta Sport who are from London, and who is also a part of Statsperform. Horse racing bets are likely to be paid out at the end of the race and the same applies to most British and Irish sporting events. Nevertheless, most international events and all foreign lower division leagues are often delayed and can take up to 24 hours in total to settle.
How to request a withdrawal and how long it may take?
Withdrawals at Ladbrokes are usually approved within 24 hours and the processing times can vary depending on the type of payment method being used. Debit cards take 3-5 working days. E-wallets like EcoPayz, iDebit, Moneysafe, Much Better, Neteller, Skrill, PayPal, WebMoney, Luxon Pay, Pcard, Postepay, Viva cash, and Yandex money can take another 24 hours after the transaction is approved, and bank transfers might take anywhere from 2-4 working days. To kickstart your withdrawal, you can request it from your Ladbrokes account page under the one condition that your payments, if possible, will be made through the same route as your initial deposits. Unfortunately, there are number of complaints from stakers on the Trustpilot profile that are linked to withdrawals being frozen due to complicated verification checks. So, don’t be surprised to find longer than usual withdrawal times when requesting to take out larger amounts from your account.
Are multiple accounts allowed?
No, multiple accounts are not allowed, and this is stated in the Ladbrokes terms and conditions. It seems that they are very strict about having only one account per staker and the terms state that, if multiple accounts are found, all connected accounts will be closed.
Is it safe to open an account with Ladbrokes?
Ladbrokes is one of the oldest betting companies at Stakersland and it is licenced and regulated by the gambling authorities of two important countries in the industry. Although some of the checks and procedures have been included in the terms and conditions, there are some important sections and information missing. The privacy policy is the big issue here with no details on all those trackers being used to follow your online footsteps. Overall, the Ladbrokes brand is such a well-known name and even being under the loss-making GVC group, they should have enough funds to clear any winning bets. There are known issues, but this is always the case when dealing with a multi-million staker community. So, all in all, we would say that you are safe opening an account with Ladbrokes, but just make sure you are aware that you will be tracked and shown various online adverts as a result.
VPN Usage Legal or Not?
Accessing your Ladbrokes account via VPN may result in the Ladbrokes system detecting and suspecting suspicious activities, which may then lead on to overall account suspension. At the same time, it is technically possible to access Ladbrokes under VPN, so you must be aware of all the repercussions of doing so.
gross gaming revenue
customer base
time to make £500K
Social Buzz
Up or down
A total of 57% of the comments are marked with one star and a ‘bad’ rating. Most of the reasons have been mentioned above with poor customer service and software problems. The 2016 issues with anti-money laundering and social responsibility policies are the main culprits for a negative outlook on the brand here.