Ladbrokes Pleased with SA Sports Betting Growth

February 6 - Ladbrokes South Africa, the relatively new South African sports betting website, which was launched as a local arm of the giant London-listed UK sportsbook group, is pleased with the progress of online sports betting in the country.

Speaking about the growth of sports betting in South Africa, the Marketing Manager of Ladbrokes SA, Anli Kotze said that the industry was growing much better than initially anticipated.

"We see South Africa as a great opportunity for Ladbrokes to increase its footprint in a fast developing market," said Kotze. "We've also adapted our payment model to cater for the needs of the local market where debit and credit cards - which are traditionally need to make purchases in the online environment - could be lacking."

Ladbrokes SA was granted a license to operate in online sports betting in South Africa in 2010.

While other forms of online gambling have been ruled to be inconsistent with the law, there are no regulations barring online sports betting.

Ladbrokes UK saw this as an opportunity to enter the local market and the South African branch contributed to the £997 million in profits generated by the group overall.

There is also growing competition in the South African online sports betting industry, and Ladbrokes SA faces stiff competition from two companies who are also testing the waters, World Sports Betting and Voltbet.

Ladbrokes entered the South African gambling market through a partnership with Kairo International Group, and has reported that since it has entered the local market, it has seen a 50% increase in registered local customers and a 25% increase in turnover.

Misjudgement Frustrates Ladbrokes SA Players

Kotze also commented on a recent misjudgment on the Ladbrokes South Africa sports betting website which not only frustrated punters, but also caused Ladbrokes SA to lose a substantial amount of money during an important cricket match.

Players who were looking forward to wager on the South Africa vs Sri Lanka one day international cricket match recently, were frustrated to find that the running in-play facilities were unavailable, as site technicians removed it to manage traffic on the site.

This meant that players who wanted to bet on the match while it was being played out found, to their disappointment, that they could not.

Kotze admitted that this was a serious glitch and an error in judgment. "They should have removed other matches that were less popular," he admitted. "We did lose some important business at the weekend as a result."

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