Gambling - Ladbrokes in talks with Gala Coral Group over possible merger

It has been reported today that discussions concerning the merger of Ladbrokes with Coral Retail, Eurobet Retail and Gala Coral's online firms are currently taking place.

Ladbrokes formerly sought to buy Coral in 1998 but the planned takeover was blocked by the Government. Persons involved in the industry will no doubt recall the detailed report produced by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. At the time the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Peter Mandelson, said a merger would lead to "a weakening of price competition at the national level" and "would damage competition and disadvantage punters".

While Ladbrokes and Coral are currently the second and third largest betting office operators behind William Hill with each operating around 2,200 and 1,850 offices respectively, their online market impact lacks behind operators including Paddy Power, bet365 and William Hill. Therefore due to the significant change in the betting market over the last 25 years with the impact of online betting it may be that the companies do not come up against barriers which prevented their previous takeover attempt.

No doubt if a merger does take place it will have a massive impact upon the landscape of the traditional betting shop market.