Ladbrokes ‘excited’ over troubled Irish operations

British bookmaker Ladbrokes saw underlying profits at its troubled Irish operations increase last year and said its business here can have an “exciting” future.

Ladbrokes Ireland emerged from a three-month period in examinership, last August, 50 outlets lighter and with the loss of 90 jobs via a voluntary redundancy programme, but with the UK group retaining ownership.

The group’s 2015 annual results, published yesterday, showed the Irish retail unit generating operating profits of £6.8m (€8.7m); up by 54.5% on the previous 12 months.