Betfair wields the axe
Lots of news stories floating around last week about redundancies at Betfair. Most reports quoted redundancies in the ‘hundreds’. The news first came to light when GamblingCompliance revealed that around 80 jobs had been cut from Betfair’s London headquarters. eGamingReview went on to announce that the total number of redundancies could top 650.
This appears to be part of CEO Breon Corcoran’s attempts to ‘rejuvenate’ the business by cutting £20m in annual expenses as stated in their December analyst call. Some cuts were inevitable because of Betfair’s exit from tertiary markets but it’s difficult to tell immediately if these cuts are directly related to that or a wider cull. Given the number of job losses reported it looks like this is a much broader cull. The write offs at during the last financial report means like for like comparisons will be favourable next year and shedding jobs on this number will mean a lower cost base going forward.
Funniest quote on the redundancies comes from Calvin Ayre: –
“Speaking to analysts in December following the release of the company’s lackluster earnings report, which saw operating profit fall by 25%, Corcoran sketched out a rescue plan intended to “reinvigorate the business by focusing on regulated jurisdictions” and to “invest in product and brand to enhance our competitive position and drive growth.” Pardon us for saying so, but this is akin to a straight guy planning to ‘reinvigorate’ the number of girls he scores with by working out, getting his hair cut, then spending a lot more time in gay bars. There is no ‘free’ nor ‘easy’ business to be had in highly regulated and competitively mature markets, just as there are comparatively few straight single girls to be found in gay bars. But we suppose this is just the way public companies view the world.”
Category: Betfair, Industry news
