The bid this morning for Entain who operates Ladbrokes, Coral and Party Poker amongst other brands is just the next step into the creation of gambling monoliths and the same market forces that see only a few companies hoovering up the bulk of supermarket shopping revenue in the UK.

The restrictions in choice and the inevitable stranglehold that will develop in conjunction with an ever more intrusive regulator will change the betting and gaming environment very much for the worse.

The passing of brands such as Ladbrokes and William Hill in an of itself is not something that should be mourned as they were well past their sell by date anyway and living off past reputation and their quick fix of FOBT's. The problem is that there was no local competition and now these industries will be owned and operated by ruthless and unethical companies from all parts of the world.  The livery of these brands shall live on but the underlying business will be entirely different 

The staff of the businesses will become collateral damage as these outside raiders gut the high street shops and formulate a dot com offering aimed at a global market with less competition until the next innovator comes along.

interesting read as always buddy