Ladbrokes is one of the largest gambling companies in the UK. Based in Harrow, London, in Rayners Lane, it has a long history going back to its initial founding in 1886. It was originally formed as a group of commission agents who trained horses in Worcestershire at Ladbroke Hall, with the current name adopted in 1902. It shifted its focus to betting in 1961 when the government first legalised betting shops under the Betting and Gaming Act which revolutionised Britain’s gambling industry. Then-owner Cyril Stein used profits from the horse training side of the business to set up some of the first betting shops in the UK. He is actually credited as the man who introduced fixed odds football betting to the country.
By 1967 the company had evolved enough that it became a publicly-traded company on the London Stock Exchange. It continued to grow over the years, acquiring Texas Homecare in 1986 and then the Stakis Hotel chain in 1999, when it rebranded itself as the Hilton Group plc until it sold the hotels back to the Hilton Hotels Corporation in 2005 and returned to its official name of Ladbrokes. Since the introduction of the Gambling Act of 2005 in the UK and the relaxation of advertising laws for gambling companies two years later, not to mention subsequent TV campaigns by Ladbrokes, the company has emerged as one of the largest sports betting companies in the UK, and is currently rated as the largest bookmaker in the world with over 2,200 retail betting locations in the UK, Ireland, Italy, and Belgium.