Ladbrokes to roll out its own TV station

Ladbrokes, the world’s biggest bookmaker, is set to spice up its betting shops with a £15m (€23.6m) investment to offer punters its own broadcasting line-up, it said today.

The group is installing new digital broadcasting technology into its 1,900 shops throughout Britain, to enable it to show its own branded in-shop television.

At the moment all bookmakers take one broadcast feed from an industry supplier Satellite Information Services, which is set to continue supplying pictures to bookmakers following a deal between the industry and race courses last week.

But this feed will now only form a small element of what Ladbrokes will offer in its shops, with the bookmaker also showing video highlights, interviews, and previews with studio experts offering advice on betting combinations.

Ladbrokes, which is part of the Hilton Group, will be able to tailor the content of its broadcasts according to shop location, enabling it to highlight Arsenal and Spurs odds in north London shops, and Fulham and Chelsea ones in west London.

It will also be able to spruce up its static text-based odds displays, which have been in use since the 1980s, to offer a digital version, while the installation of broadband technology will enable it to distribute more data faster to customers.

The roll-out of the service begins next week, with the introduction of the new system in Ladbrokes’s shop in the financial district of Manchester.

The shop will offer the new digital displays, touch-screen displays outlining how to bet, telephone links to Ladbrokes’ betting call centre and free Internet access.

Chief executive Chris Bell said: ‘‘This is the largest phase of our sustained investment which is reinventing the entire betting shop experience.

‘‘We have already invested £40 million on electronic point of sale and the biggest shop refurbishment programme in the industry’s history.

‘‘Now we are bringing betting shop broadcasting into the 21st century. We are investing ahead of the competition and will see the rewards in the coming years as the impact of tax-free betting continues to deliver.’’