Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Ladbrokes has issued its Q1 interim management statement early, alerting investors that it expects full-year profits to be towards the lower end of expectations following a difficult start to trading in 2013.

Announcing a £13m drop in group operating profit to £37.4m, the bookmaker said several one-off trading events had compounded the shortfall already expected from a £9m hike in gaming machines duty and “the expected weighting of growth in Digital revenues.”

These one-off events in the three months to 31 March 2013 were spearheaded by a £6m fall in revenue from the Cheltenham Festival, where a string of heavily backed favourites including Gold Cup winner Bobs Worth came home, helping punters profit at the expense of the bookies. Ladbrokes also blamed lower revenues from high-value gaming customers and the impact of horseracing cancellations.

The bookmaker also said it did not expect to reap the full benefits of its new digital partnership with Playtech until 2014, with profits declining in the current year.

Ladbrokes boss Richard Glynn (pictured) however emphasised the betting and egaming group maintained a strong underlying margin performance of 9.6%, reflecting the improvements made to date in that area, and that its digital turnaround remained on track. “Our partnership with Playtech aims to address our underperformance in gaming and accelerate our performance in mobile,” he said.

Ladbrokes will re-launch its mobile offerings on Playtech’s Mobenga platform during 2013, and also go live with a new “Vegas” tab on Ladbrokes.com, offering around 200 Playtech games.

Ladbrokes has engaged the software supplier to engineer the same turnaround it achieved with bitter rival William Hill’s online gaming business, announcing a performance-based software and services agreement last month.

The bookmaker’s overhaul of its digital platform has been plagued with difficulties and delays since it earmarked £50m of investment for the project more than two years ago.

Sorry Rich, I missed this due to the sheer number of maths Posts.

Same old, same old. You could find their Quarterly Reports for the last 5 years, & they all say exactly the same thing.

A shame really, Cyril Stein would turn in his grave, but they are on the slide & I'm not sure they will ever be able to arrest it until they take a knife to the dispirate arms of the Business. Online Gaming & nothing else, that is where the monsta growth is available, but they need to get a wriggle on, rivals are pinching the Market at a rate of knots.

Online Poker, which is what many of us here think of when we see the name Ladbrokes, is of absolutely no significance as a revenue earner whatsoever, it is an incredibly small part of the Business & in itself counts for nothing. It has a very important use though via cross-sell to Sports. They would earn more money from "First Client Poker" when they migrate to the Sports Book in one year than they earn on 10 years at poker.  

And even now, their basic systens are incredibly outdated. They don't even have a "Common Wallet", & if I want to play on their Poker Site, & it is not funded, but I have cash in my Sports Account, I have to transfer it! That is an almost Victorian method. Common Walet is the ONLY way, because it makes it easier to get folks across to Sports, where the real money is made. So they make it as difficult as possible.

My card expired recently, & I wanted to tx some cash from Sports to Poker, & they insisted I FIRST had to WITHDRAW ALL MY MONEY from Ladbrokes, & then re-deposit. Did you ever see a better invitation not to bother, & go somewhere else instead? We know why they went that route, but any savvy Company can work round that.

They say they want to improve the Business, innovate, & so they copy the Wm Hill route & get Playtech involved. And they are re-branding their Online Slots, & calling it - guess what - "Vegas". Wonder where that idea arose?

In poker, which of course is not important in itself, they are moving to i-Poker this year. That'll be a proper USP. Not. How on earth does being on i-Poker improve their overall prospects & USP's?

And yes, I still have my Ladbrokes shares, had them over 30 years now. Fred would be a better investment.....

Ladbrokes? Game On.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Tesco reported a 50% drop in profits this morning, but I hope Scotty, who I strongly suggested should keep their shares, does not panic.

They have, exactly as expected, done a kitchen sink job & piled as much bad news & corporate surgery into one Quarter as they are able. Makes future numbers better. They have exited the USA, & several other Overseas Markets, which is good. USA & the like was said to have cost them £1 billion over the years, but that is bollox - it cost them MUCH more, because it took their eye off their home market, & they neglected it, which has cost them dearly.

Underlying Profits, ex the Exceptionals, & despite the headline numbers, were bang on Analysts forecasts, slightly down, but nothing significant.

Not sure how the Shares will react, but to me, it is a classic buying opportunity. Buy on weakness? Yes please.

So Ryan, do NOT worry. If I had adequate liquidity, I'd be a buyer.

They need to freshen things up though.

[tikay]

going back a few pages to when you was put in with the special students as I assume you have dyslexia? Its shameful really, when I was in primary school in the 80s it was the same, they put me in with all sorts of kids, some who didn't want to learn just because my English was poor due to dyslexia, but pretty much top of everything else in the school.

You would think its changed alot now? but due to major restrictions in finances  to look after the lower achieving kids they still get lumped in together right up to local college education. You can have one tutor and a Learning support staff member to say a class of 15, each student needing a totally different learning/teaching'/support program, its criminal.  I was teaching in 2004 a class of 8, 2 perfectly intelligent lads who were deaf, a down syndrome lad, an autistic girl, a few lads who had been abused as kids and struggling with life in general and finally a few simple students who struggled with learning. The college gave you a single curriculum to teach them all the same stuff!? lol.

I took it off my own back to decide learning academic things was one of the least important things they needed. I taught them social skills and life, getting a job, enjoying things, going for walks ~(~4 of them had never been outside Leeds!). Safe to say this did no go down too well with the college 3 of them I got jobs and they left halfway through the course (A result i would class as), at the end of the year I got them all in placements and voluntary work of some sort, some of them were different people, full of confidence and blossoming as adults. Of course education does not allow this flexibility in  "teaching" they more than happy keeping them on meaningless courses year on year and getting funding for them.

Until funding at all levels are pumped up and people categorize the many levels of learning difficulties they will be lumped in together and kept down to a steady life of bullshite.

Morning.

No, I don't believe my inability to read, write or communicate well was Dyslexia, though it may have been I suppose. My doubt comes from the associated symptoms, including a severe stammer, bed-wetting & a bunch of other "head problems", but more importantly, ALL of the problems - every one of them - disappeared, literally, overnight, when I was about 15, & I became "normal" in every way except for the mental scar tissue. I carry a bit of a load from the experience, but for the most part it was the best thing that could have happened to me ever ever ever, as it turned out. No complaints at all, as played.

But your key point IS important. There was in my, & it seems your case too, NO efforts by the Education System to identify & cure - it was just - he's not normal, he is slowing down the rest of the class, so we will seperate him, because that is more efficient. So I ended up in a Special School, & what a bunch we were, all with totally unrelated malaises, & there was no attempt to identify or cure (many were quite beyond cure of course).

The Polio & Thalidomide kids, (see spazzers in internet poker speak) whilst grotesquely deformed physically, for the most part had no mental disability. It was only, really, the Downs Syndrome kids (window lickers, dribblers, mongs & tards....) who would not have benefitted from a good education.

So yes, I'm pretty mad with the Education System, & so should you be, you, we, have every right to be cross. Conversely, what is done is done, we are best moving on I think. I really don't much like carrying hate right through our lives, it confers no benefit to anyone.

I took it off my own back to decide learning academic things was one of the least important things they needed. I taught them social skills and life, getting a job, enjoying things, going for walks ~(~

Dear God, that is one of the best things I have seen on blonde. You are a hero.

Teaching kids social skills, life, enjoying things?  Reverting again to poker-speak, zing, crush, smash.

NB - You must pardon the brief glimpses of loathing for inappropriate language. 

[Acidmouse]

Morning.

No, I don't believe my inability to read, write or communicate well was Dyslexia, though it may have been I suppose. My doubt comes from the associated symptoms, including a severe stammer, bed-wetting & a bunch of other "head problems", but more importantly, ALL of the problems - every one of them - disappeared, literally, overnight, when I was about 15, & I became "normal" in every way except for the mental scar tissue. I carry a bit of a load from the experience, but for the most part it was the best thing that could have happened to me ever ever ever, as it turned out. No complaints at all, as played.

But your key point IS important. There was in my, & it seems your case too, NO efforts by the Education System to identify & cure - it was just - he's not normal, he is slowing down the rest of the class, so we will seperate him, because that is more efficient. So I ended up in a Special School, & what a bunch we were, all with totally unrelated malaises, & there was no attempt to identify or cure (many were quite beyond cure of course).

The Polio & Thalidomide kids, (see spazzers in internet poker speak) whilst grotesquely deformed physically, for the most part had no mental disability. It was only, really, the Downs Syndrome kids (window lickers, dribblers, mongs & tards....) who would not have benefitted from a good education.

So yes, I'm pretty mad with the Education System, & so should you be, you, we, have every right to be cross. Conversely, what is done is done, we are best moving on I think. I really don't much like carrying hate right through our lives, it confers no benefit to anyone.

I took it off my own back to decide learning academic things was one of the least important things they needed. I taught them social skills and life, getting a job, enjoying things, going for walks ~(~

Dear God, that is one of the best things I have seen on blonde. You are a hero.

Teaching kids social skills, life, enjoying things?  Reverting again to poker-speak, zing, crush, smash.

NB - You must pardon the brief glimpses of loathing for inappropriate language. 

Yeah I wish I could still be doing it as a job, sadly the pay simply was not good enough and the environment of constantly fighting the college to do best for the kids grinds you down. Not always just the education system that lets down these kids, often the parents protect them in safe bubble/environment.

I used to make up all the bullshit grades for them while we plodded off to fountains abbey or ripen Cathedral lol. The best and I mean BEST day with them was the bus from Leeds to York then head to the Railway museum. Had to drag them off the trains, many of which had never been on one before

Only takes a few champions or teachers that do this to transform a college class.

[tikay]

Morning.

No, I don't believe my inability to read, write or communicate well was Dyslexia, though it may have been I suppose. My doubt comes from the associated symptoms, including a severe stammer, bed-wetting & a bunch of other "head problems", but more importantly, ALL of the problems - every one of them - disappeared, literally, overnight, when I was about 15, & I became "normal" in every way except for the mental scar tissue. I carry a bit of a load from the experience, but for the most part it was the best thing that could have happened to me ever ever ever, as it turned out. No complaints at all, as played.

But your key point IS important. There was in my, & it seems your case too, NO efforts by the Education System to identify & cure - it was just - he's not normal, he is slowing down the rest of the class, so we will seperate him, because that is more efficient. So I ended up in a Special School, & what a bunch we were, all with totally unrelated malaises, & there was no attempt to identify or cure (many were quite beyond cure of course).

The Polio & Thalidomide kids, (see spazzers in internet poker speak) whilst grotesquely deformed physically, for the most part had no mental disability. It was only, really, the Downs Syndrome kids (window lickers, dribblers, mongs & tards....) who would not have benefitted from a good education.

So yes, I'm pretty mad with the Education System, & so should you be, you, we, have every right to be cross. Conversely, what is done is done, we are best moving on I think. I really don't much like carrying hate right through our lives, it confers no benefit to anyone.

I took it off my own back to decide learning academic things was one of the least important things they needed. I taught them social skills and life, getting a job, enjoying things, going for walks ~(~

Dear God, that is one of the best things I have seen on blonde. You are a hero.

Teaching kids social skills, life, enjoying things?  Reverting again to poker-speak, zing, crush, smash.

NB - You must pardon the brief glimpses of loathing for inappropriate language. 

Yeah I wish I could still be doing it as a job, sadly the pay simply was not good enough and the environment of constantly fighting the college to do best for the kids grinds you down. Not always just the education system that lets down these kids, often the parents protect them in safe bubble/environment.

I used to make up all the bullshit grades for them while we plodded off to fountains abbey or ripen Cathedral lol. The best and I mean BEST day with them was the bus from Leeds to York then head to the Railway museum. Had to drag them off the trains, many of which had never been on one before

Only takes a few champions or teachers that do this to transform a college class.

I doubt you would admit to seeing it this way, but you genuinely changed those kids lives for the better. Quite something to stick on your Life CV.

It is, of course, perfectly natural & understandable for Parents to wrap their kids in cotton wool. And perfectly wrong. I have never been a Parent, nor will I be, so I'm no expert, but I think it must be really tough to be firm with one's children, and I am not sure I could, but the alternative does not bear thinking about.

I know a few real-life examples where over-protecting children has had such a negative impact on their lives. "You have a bit of a cold, best not go to school today" has lifelong ramifications.

[pokerfan]

You may have seen this guy before, he's the dude from the Ladbrokes ad.

Quite passionate about his football

[Machka]

Some pretty stunning photos of abandoned places.

http://myscienceacademy.org/2013/04/14/the-33-most-beautiful-abandoned-places-in-the-world/

Click to see full-size image.

[titaniumbean]

Think 25 is the one I was going to mention, massive communist monument building up in the hills somewhere in bulgaria. looks incredible.

Cant help but spend a while on here looking at the military locations

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/

[KarmaDope]

Think 25 is the one I was going to mention, massive communist monument building up in the hills somewhere in bulgaria. looks incredible.

Cant help but spend a while on here looking at the military locations

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/

FFS Tittybean, I'd forgotten about that forum.

I wanted an early night tonight. Not happening now!!

[Junior Senior]

Ladbrokes has issued its Q1 interim management statement early, alerting investors that it expects full-year profits to be towards the lower end of expectations following a difficult start to trading in 2013.

Announcing a £13m drop in group operating profit to £37.4m, the bookmaker said several one-off trading events had compounded the shortfall already expected from a £9m hike in gaming machines duty and “the expected weighting of growth in Digital revenues.”

These one-off events in the three months to 31 March 2013 were spearheaded by a £6m fall in revenue from the Cheltenham Festival, where a string of heavily backed favourites including Gold Cup winner Bobs Worth came home, helping punters profit at the expense of the bookies. Ladbrokes also blamed lower revenues from high-value gaming customers and the impact of horseracing cancellations.

The bookmaker also said it did not expect to reap the full benefits of its new digital partnership with Playtech until 2014, with profits declining in the current year.

Ladbrokes boss Richard Glynn (pictured) however emphasised the betting and egaming group maintained a strong underlying margin performance of 9.6%, reflecting the improvements made to date in that area, and that its digital turnaround remained on track. “Our partnership with Playtech aims to address our underperformance in gaming and accelerate our performance in mobile,” he said.

Ladbrokes will re-launch its mobile offerings on Playtech’s Mobenga platform during 2013, and also go live with a new “Vegas” tab on Ladbrokes.com, offering around 200 Playtech games.

Ladbrokes has engaged the software supplier to engineer the same turnaround it achieved with bitter rival William Hill’s online gaming business, announcing a performance-based software and services agreement last month.

The bookmaker’s overhaul of its digital platform has been plagued with difficulties and delays since it earmarked £50m of investment for the project more than two years ago.

Sorry Rich, I missed this due to the sheer number of maths Posts.

Same old, same old. You could find their Quarterly Reports for the last 5 years, & they all say exactly the same thing.

A shame really, Cyril Stein would turn in his grave, but they are on the slide & I'm not sure they will ever be able to arrest it until they take a knife to the dispirate arms of the Business. Online Gaming & nothing else, that is where the monsta growth is available, but they need to get a wriggle on, rivals are pinching the Market at a rate of knots.

Online Poker, which is what many of us here think of when we see the name Ladbrokes, is of absolutely no significance as a revenue earner whatsoever, it is an incredibly small part of the Business & in itself counts for nothing. It has a very important use though via cross-sell to Sports. They would earn more money from "First Client Poker" when they migrate to the Sports Book in one year than they earn on 10 years at poker.  

And even now, their basic systens are incredibly outdated. They don't even have a "Common Wallet", & if I want to play on their Poker Site, & it is not funded, but I have cash in my Sports Account, I have to transfer it! That is an almost Victorian method. Common Walet is the ONLY way, because it makes it easier to get folks across to Sports, where the real money is made. So they make it as difficult as possible.

My card expired recently, & I wanted to tx some cash from Sports to Poker, & they insisted I FIRST had to WITHDRAW ALL MY MONEY from Ladbrokes, & then re-deposit. Did you ever see a better invitation not to bother, & go somewhere else instead? We know why they went that route, but any savvy Company can work round that.

They say they want to improve the Business, innovate, & so they copy the Wm Hill route & get Playtech involved. And they are re-branding their Online Slots, & calling it - guess what - "Vegas". Wonder where that idea arose?

In poker, which of course is not important in itself, they are moving to i-Poker this year. That'll be a proper USP. Not. How on earth does being on i-Poker improve their overall prospects & USP's?

And yes, I still have my Ladbrokes shares, had them over 30 years now. Fred would be a better investment.....

Ladbrokes? Game On.

Click to see full-size image.

Theyre gonna be well pissed when they see the free bet they offered me has just cashed in at 3.5/1 Tevezzzz!

[titaniumbean]

Think 25 is the one I was going to mention, massive communist monument building up in the hills somewhere in bulgaria. looks incredible.

Cant help but spend a while on here looking at the military locations

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/

FFS Tittybean, I'd forgotten about that forum.

I wanted an early night tonight. Not happening now!!

I know it's great isn't it. love stuff like that.

[tonytats]

Have you seen this tony ? About the boston bombing

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f04_1366229238

[tikay]

Have you seen this tony ? About the boston bombing

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f04_1366229238

Thanks Tony.

Amazing how many photos from CCTV they must have had to sift through.

Quite impressive, though the first few lines struck me as typical American paranoia.....


Photos collated on the 4Chan website show numerous images of suspicious individuals wearing large backpacks present at the scene of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Three of the men appear to be Arab or Middle Eastern in appearance, whereas another two of the individuals are white.

Either way, it was a despicable thing to do to regular folk, a real atrocity, & we can but hope they are all bought to book.
 

[bobAlike]

Have you seen the news about that fire in Waco, Texas? Bloody hell the link below is to a video clip of the Waco fire just as it explodes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22195873

[tikay]

Have you seen the news about that fire in Waco, Texas? Bloody hell the link below is to a video clip of the Waco fire just as it explodes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22195873

Yes, had the wireless on all morning, & they were playing the audio of that video almost back to back. That poor girl, her fear & panic is absolutely haunting. 

I fear the loss of life may be far greater than they are so far admitting.

It is - was - a fertiliser factory, & I believe fertiliser has some very explosive elements in certain circumstances, it often seems to be an ingredient of "home-made" bombs.

Sadly & inevitably, the local police are suggesting "we are not taking it for granted that it is a terrorist attack, though it is top of our list".

I hope the death toll is less than I fear, whatever the cause.