Ladbrokes New Zealand

Nearly two-and-a-half years has passed since we last had a good look at online betting agency Ladbrokes, which is practically an eon in an industry where change and innovation takes place at breakneck pace, so we thought to do an update to include what has stayed the same and what has morphed as the online wagering industry evolves. Join Ladbrokes Today

We specifically wanted to look at Ladbrokes as this huge multinational bookmaking agency functions in Australia and New Zealand, so all the information here pertains not only to the agency in general, but also to how it operates here where it truly matters. Anybody who cares to take a look such as we are taking should enter the URL www.ladbrokes.com.au into the search box of his or her browser.

Origins of Ladbrokes

Ladbrokes is one of the older bookmakers in the world, having started out in Worcestershire England in the next-to-last decade of the 1800s. Two horse racing commission agents operated the Ladbrokes brand for the first fifteen years or so, until it was sufficiently well established enough to warrant a move to London in 1902.

This sort of longevity should provide comfort to anyone who values a company reputation, as the organisation that can stay afloat for over 100 years without doing things properly is rare, with governments being the only example to the contrary.

Ladbrokes initially provided services only to the top ranks of the British clientele, but as societal change upheaved the status quo in England, many bookmakers, as well as other formerly elite businesses, came to the pragmatic conclusion that middle class money had the same purchasing power as upper class money.

The company did struggle at various points and was in such a state of decline that it was purchased some 60 years ago for 100,000. That same year marked the retirement of Ladbroke’s principal on-course representative, Mrs. Helen Vernet, who performed steadfastly for almost 40 years in a male-dominated occupation.

Ladbrokes Australian Branch

On the main landing page encountered when the above mentioned URL is entered, Ladbrokes gets off to a less than auspicious start, in our opinion, and since this is a review and does contain a heavy dose of our opinions, ones which may not be universally shared, we feel justified in abandoning our typical objectivity.

The colour scheme is a non-descript grey background with a generous splattering of red. That is not particularly egregious, but trends in that direction due to the accompanying scroll front and centre that is more than a little distracting, which touts various promotions.

Ladbrokes Positive Number One

There are an entirely adequate number of account deposit options. We counted seven on the website, including PayPal and Poli, but it will require some attention on the part of New Zealand punters to determine the method that best minimises any dipping in account value due to Ladbrokes operating solely with the Australian dollar.

Ladbrokes Positive Number Two

Despite our spurious objections to the appearance of the site, we cannot fault its operation in the slightest. We lovers of routine appreciate the three-column layout that makes it sublimely intuitive to find things, because those things we want to find are in the same places as they are with the other agencies we patronise.

Various pages on the website load quickly, which is a true boon to the many live betting markets Ladbrokes offers. We liked the prominent display of the phone number needed to phone in live bets. When we visited the site at an odd hour, we still found nearly 100 live markets. The odds for these live markets were continuously updated with no user action required.

Ladbrokes did not hawk their mobile apps to the extent some do, but they are there, including iOS, Android, and our preferred mobile version of the website.

Ladbrokes Downsides

We will not rehash our objections to the colour scheme, nor ding Ladbrokes for the inability to provide live online betting.

We do, however, find their margins to be a little above the average. For a range of markets that includes the most popular southern hemisphere sports, Ladbrokes average was 5.5 percent, a level tied with TopBetta and surpassed only by 10Bet and ComeOn.

Ladbrokes also has a dormant account fee to capture funds from those with short attention spans. Why any punter would establish a membership and fail to use it completely escapes our comprehension, as we will go out of our way to recover a stray five-cent piece, but there are those of you who seem to have money to spare.

Conclusion

Ladbrokes obviously has its finger on the pulse of the punting public. They could not have survived this long otherwise. The technical aspects of the operation are exceptional in most regards. There are markets, domestic and international, galore. Odds are competitive and for sheer entertainment value, Ladbrokes is unsurpassed.

They represent a valid option for the occasional, recreational punter who does not fret over details that require the rapt attention of the high-volume wagerer, those who do not spend hours in analyzing markets and seeking miniscule edges for every wager.