England's newspapers have been full of Ladbroke stories in recent days, as the United Kingdom's largest betting shop chain dived into Internet betting with a vengeance, seeking a 25 percent share of the U.K.'s online betting market it now shares with William Hill and Coral.
As Ladbroke launched two Internet sites, Bet.co.uk for football betting and Ladbrokes.com for tax free sports betting, shares in parent Hilton Group rose 14.75 percent. Ladbrokes will provide interactive
betting to Telewest and Cable and Wireless Communications, two cable television companies, for their digital services, and has an exclusive agreement with Two Way TV, an interactive TV company. In addition, it will offer interactive betting through an agreement with Open, a satellite-based interactive TV service backed by British Telecommunications, British Sky Broadcasting, HSBC and Matsushita, and is in talks with Ericsson, the mobile phone operator, to develop betting for mobiles, according to the The Financial Times in London.
Hilton Group President Peter George said the new partnerships "will enable Ladbrokes, the world's leading betting group, to reach a far wider and more affluent audience."
The company also is revamping its entire customer database as part of a $160 million investment in relational marketing.