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Bookmaker Ladbrokes fell 0.7 percent on news of a 44-percent drop in adjusted first-half profit to 24.7 million pounds, reflecting less betting on football and a string of customer-friendly results. Its update was in-line with guidance.
The betting giant had already warned that its revenues were flat at £588.8 million coming into Tuesday's announced financials report.
Ladbrokes and a number of its competitors were also hit by Chancellor George Osborne’s tax raids in December and March.
Osborne introduced a "point of consumption tax" this past December whereby bets placed in Great Britain are now subject to a 15 per cent levy. An amendment in the March budget increased the tax on fixed-odds betting terminals, often referred to the "crack cocaine of gambling".
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
