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William Hill and Ladbrokes to go offshore

By Sarah Bridge for The Mail on Sunday
Updated: 08:19 EDT, 2 August 2009

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Britain faces an exodus of its online gambling industry.

And they're off: Betting giants William Hill and Ladbrokes could seek tax havens

Two of the biggest bookmakers, William Hill and Ladbrokes, are expected to unveil plans to shift their online sports and phone betting operations to offshore tax havens.

William Hill chief executive Ralph Topping has made no secret of his dislike of paying 15% betting tax while offshore rivals such asVictor Chandler and Paddy Power pay nearer 1.5%.

Topping is expected to confirm that he is moving the online sports and phone betting operations to Gibraltar when the company reports interim results on Tuesday. The bookmaker already has a division based there for online casino-style gambling and has been moving staff.

Ladbrokes is keeping its cards close to its chest with a board meeting due the day after William Hill's results. But while it is understood to prefer staying in the UK, company sources admitted it would have to respond to any move by William Hill. Ladbrokes will report interim results on Thursday.

Going offshore will have a serious impact on the racing industry with millions of pounds lost from the racing levy while millions more in tax will be lost to the Treasury. Analysts expect pretaxprofits of up to £133m from William Hill and about £135m from Ladbrokes, slightly down on last year.

The decline is blamed on horse race cancellations due to bad weather and predictable football results in May.

A racing source said: 'Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool won pretty much every game they played in May, which is bad for the bookmakers as people tend to bet on these teams and combine bets.'

However, Glorious Goodwood, which at first favoured the punter, tilted back towards the bookmaker by the end of last week.

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