Ladbrokes Review
With deep roots in UK gambling history, Ladbrokes is one of the largest betting companys in the UK and one of the largest retail bookmaker in the world. At their peak they owned over 2,400 shops in the UK and Ireland alone, though hundreds stores have been sold or closed since that point. They also operate several websites for sports betting, poker, bingo and other gaming products
In this review, we assess the sports betting side of their operation, as well as their online casino, which offers bingo, poker and a range of virtual games. Since the launch of the “Vegas” division, the company effectively runs two casinos, which both offer a different selection of games. In this review, we'll start out by looking at the various welcome bonuses offered for both sports and casino, as well as the other features and games offered by Ladbrokes.
Odds & Markets
The main focus of the Ladbrokes sportsbook until relatively recently was undoubtedly horse racing but due to the explosion of the popularity of betting on football they’ve changed their service accordingly. Horse racing and football are still the top two in terms of market coverage and odds, though they have an extensive range of other sports for customers to bet on.
For racing punters, Ladbrokes offer best odds guaranteed on certain races meaning that backing the winner will get you the best odds available on it, regardless of the price you backed it at (for example if the starting price ends up higher than the ante post price you took). Where applicable this type of offer removes the penalty of placing a bet earlier in the day if the price lengthens by the start. Their coverage of racing is absolutely comprehensive as well, they’ll have odds for all UK and Irish races and most US, European and other big international racing as well.
Their football coverage isn’t quite this extensive, they do cover all the main leagues which is fine for most punters’ needs, but they don’t have as much youth and lower division football as some of their competitors. Some of their best prices are on football however as this is one of their biggest volume and lowest profit margin sports. The depth of markets for top level games is also impressive and they often lead popular markets like first goalscorer and correct score in terms of the odds.
In respect of other sports such as tennis and golf their coverage is mixed and the odds are still good but generally not as strong as for football and racing. Most professional golf tournaments are covered but sometimes the market depth doesn’t go much past outrights and the tennis markets are well covered but the prices are often not the best due to this being their highest profit margin sport aside from basketball.
Features
Ladbrokes’ new website and range of mobile apps are very well designed and intuitively functional and boast a whole range of features which will interest gamblers of all stripes.
A significant strength of their website is the option to live stream many of the sports events you can bet on. They are one of a small but growing group of bookmakers who can offer this service and it’s definitely a nice touch. They stream matches from football, tennis and horse racing on a regular basis, as well as other sports like basketball and darts on occasion.
In-Play Betting
The in-play betting console is also a very nice feature. You can sort live events by sport and see all the scores displayed together, as well as viewing prices for the outright markets and whether there is a live stream of the event available. If you click a specific fixture it takes you to a page where you can see all the available markets and tabs to switch between the live stream (if there is one) and a statistical overview of the game.
Mobile Betting
Ladbrokes also have a range of applications to go with all of the different services their website offers, so there’s one for sports betting, one for casino games, one for poker, and so on. This is really useful for mobiles as it keeps the screen uncluttered and lets you get straight to the feature you want to use.
The Grid
The Grid is an account that you can set up to use within any of the Ladbrokes betting shops. It’s essentially an account card that allows you to make bets, withdraw money and even deposit money all to be used within the high street. On top of that you are able to track your bets, watch live streams of matches, check the latest football stats, form, predictors, bet finder and a shop locator for your local store.
The Grid has also been designed to hook up to your online account as well. This means that you can move money about online to be used in store and vice versa.
#GetAPrice Football Specials
The #GetAPrice feature allows you, the punter, to create your own bets. The bets are usually targeted towards individuals within a football match, but they be extended for team markets and even other sports. All you need to do is tweet @Ladbrokes using the #GetAPrice and they will send you a link with your bet included.
The range of markets is pretty much endless, but some of the more popular ones include shots, goals, touches, assists, yellow cards, red cards, distance covered, saves and offside’s.
Casino Games
Ladbrokes Casino operates on several different software platforms including industry leaders Playtech, NetEnt, Blueprint, Electracade and others. Around 260 games are available for instant play via the website which is a little disappointing compared to some competitors, although if you download the casino client you will get access to 540, putting them back into contention with the best around.
Some, although not all of these games are accessible via the mobile site and/or app. When you look through the list of games you will see that some have a small black and white smartphone logo next to them which indicates their compatibility for mobile play. Ladbrokes have a range of mobile apps for their different services meaning you can keep your sports betting separate from your bingo which avoids any confusion, although we find visiting the site on your mobile and playing in-browser is the simplest option of all.
The slot games are constantly being added to and include a plethora of popular slots such as Frankie Dettori’s Magic Seven, Deal or No Deal and Heart of the Jungle. If you’re looking for the big jackpot games you can make use of the ranking table in the sidebar which shows in real time which games have the largest progressive jackpot. The top games will almost always be well into six figures and sometimes up to several million pounds – undoubtedly a nice payout if you can catch it!
The table and card options present all of the classic casino games in a variety of exciting formats such as Quantum Roulette and Blackjack Surrender, as well as more traditional approaches to these games and others like baccarat, craps and three card poker.
Serious poker players will know that the Ladbrokes poker site has been a long standing fans’ favourite but this is separate to the casino’s video poker section. The video poker section has a series of themed single player poker casino games such as Aces and Faces and the popular Joker Poker.
Another feature of note is the live casino where you can bet on roulette, blackjack, hold ‘em and baccarat online whilst watching a dealer play the game for you in real time via live stream. It might not seem like the largest selection for an online casino but in fact they are ahead of many of their competitors who either don’t offer live games at all or perhaps only feature blackjack and roulette.
On the High Street
Ladbrokes were one of the first companies to enter the gambling industry way back in 1886. They were able to start by offering up gambling stalls within racetracks and then dog tracks. In fact, they still operate within a number of these tracks even today, such as Crayford and Monmore.
The merger between Ladbrokes and Coral back in 2016 meant that they were the biggest bookie on the high street. Between them they had over 4,000 betting shops with a staggering workforce of 30,000 people, by far and away the biggest in the industry at the time. But, as part of their merger they were forced to sell up between 350 and 400 betting shops, the majority of which were bought by betting rivals, Betfred, as per instructed by the Competition and Markets Authority. Current figures are closer to 3,000 shops for the two brands combined.
Both Ladbrokes and Coral are now part of the Entain Group, which purchased Ladbrokes Coral in 2018 when known as GVC Holdings.
Who are Ladbrokes?
The company can trace its heritage back to 1886 as a commission agents for race horses trained at Ladbroke Hall in Worcestershire. They’ve gone by the name of Ladbrokes officially since 1902 when the company moved to London. In the early part of the 20th century they gained a reputation for being the bookmaker of the aristocracy, doing most of their business in gentleman’s clubs. The online casino was then launched in the year 2000 and is, of course, licensed and regulated in the UK by the Gambling Commission.
Today Ladbrokes are part of the Entain Group which is traded on the London Stock Exchange as a FTSE 100 company. The group is based in London but has a registered office on the Isle of Man and is licensed in Gibraltar for tax reasons, though, as mentioned previously, it is licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission, assuring a very high standard of fairness and data security.
Contact & License Info
- Live Chat: Via Website (24/7)
- Email: Via web form
- Telephone: 0800 731 6191
- Address: One Stratford Place, Westfield Stratford City, Montfichet Road, London, United Kingdom, E20 1EJ
- Company Number: 00775667
- License: UK Gambling Commission 54743