John Kelly, the new chairman of Ladbrokes, is a one-time managing director of Associated Leisure, the major British machine distributor of the 1970s and 1980s.
Kelly, 67, took over at Ladbrokes from Peter Erskine and will continue as chairman when the merger with Gala Coral goes ahead in the £2.3bn deal. Kelly has been on the Ladbrokes board as a senior non-executive director.
His time at Associated Leisure came when the company was part of Mecca Leisure, where Kelly was a director from 1984 to 1992. He was also CEO of Cash Card Holdings (1992-94) and CEO of Cascade Clubs (1995-97). Kelly also joined Gala Group, the bingo chain where he led a management buy-in from Bass PLC in 1997. He also held senior positions with Granada, Mecca and Rank, all major bingo groups. Kelly was chairman of Gala Coral Group from 2004 to 2009 and currently holds a number of non-executive directorships in industry-related companies.
According to newspaper reports, major British bookmaker Fred Done of Betfred will buy as many as possible of the around-500 bookies’ shops that will have to be discarded by the Ladbrokes-Coral merger. The UK monopolies authorities are expected to insist on some reduction in the combined holding of the two companies once merged. Betfred has 1,400 shops; the combined Ladbrokes-Merger group would have 4,000.
