Bookmaker To Close Liverpool Call Centre

Ladbrokes has claimed that the tax regime is harming UK-based gambling firms.

Ladbrokes has announced plans to shut down its sports betting call centre in Aintree, Liverpool.

The closure, which will put 263 jobs at risk, comes several months after the bookmaker confirmed the relocation of its internet betting services to Gibraltar.

In a statement, Ladbrokes claimed that the tax advantages enjoyed by offshore operators are making it increasingly difficult for UK-based firms to run telephone betting centres.

Spokesperson Ciaran O'Brien said that telephone betting is a "very competitive market" and noted that British bookmakers currently face "significantly higher levels of tax than those operating from offshore jurisdictions".

Ladbrokes, which also has a telephone betting centre at its head office in Harrow, north London, takes over six million calls from punters each year.

Earlier this year, the bookmaker's chief executive Chris Bell ruled out moving its call centres overseas due to something he termed "the Stenhousemuir effect".

He told the Times: "If you get someone phoning up saying: 'I want a tenner on Stenhousemuir to beat Forfar', you need people who can deal with it in real time."