Operators get ready for FOBT stakes’ slash

Ladbrokes and Coral have announced that they’ll extend their best-odds guaranteed offer across all over-the-counter bets.

UK.- The maximum stake on fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) will soon be slashed down and operators are trying to counter the measure’s impact. Ladbrokes and Coral have already announced that they will extend their best-odds guaranteed offer across all over-the-counter bets.

According to the companies that operate under GVC Holdings, they will make the offer available daily but won’t include lay-to-lose bets.

“This is the biggest racing offer ever to hit the high street, and is a clear signal of our intent as we face up to a new era for betting shops from April 1,” Ladbrokes Coral PR Director Simon Clare told the Racing Post, adding: “There is no question that a seismic change in our betting shop business is going to occur when the FOBT stake restrictions come into force, but we are now taking pre-emptive action with the launch of this significant betting shop offer, which will boost our horse racing business and also our betting shop footfall as we prepare for the challenge ahead.”

Clare believes that though the FOBT regulation change will cause shops to close, “there is a huge opportunity to re-energise and refocus all those that remain,” and said: “Horseracing will be the most important sport of them all within this vision of the future.”

“By matching the universally popular best-odds guaranteed horse racing concession that exists online, we have removed a major disincentive to bet on horse racing in our betting shops versus online, and we hope this will lead to a significant upturn in racing business levels over the coming weeks and months,” he stated.