Ladbrokes and Coral are familiar names on the British high street. Search for either in the Gambling Commission’s register and more than one business turns up. The website address helps you find the relevant entry, while a line in the account terms can tell you what happens to money you leave with the bookmaker if it goes out of business.
You could walk past a Coral shop in Manchester, pull up the bookmaker on your phone and see much the same branding. Try searching for Coral in the Gambling Commission’s register, though, and two businesses with that trading name appear among the results. One is Ladbrokes Betting & Gaming Limited, based in London. The other is LC International Limited, based in Gibraltar. LC International’s entry lists both coral.co.uk and ladbrokes.com.
The company behind the name on your screen
A bookmaker’s logo tells you whose site you’ve opened. The account terms tell you which company you’re dealing with. On a sportsbook, that information can be several screens below the weekend’s football prices. The footer is a good place to start, but the opening clauses of the terms often spell out who operates the service and what the company means when it refers to itself as ‘we’.
Once you’ve found that legal name, you may see it again beneath a completely different logo. If you’re curious how those connections are recorded, the WikiGamblia Information Hub puts trading names alongside operating companies and includes licensing details in its brand profiles. For the site you have open, take the exact name from the terms and search for it in the Gambling Commission’s register. You can also search by the web address, which saves some detective work when the name alone brings up several results.
When another business runs the sportsbook
Sometimes the business behind the site runs it under somebody else’s branding. This arrangement, known as white labelling, can give several outwardly different sportsbooks a common operator. If something happens to that operator’s licence, the consequences can reach well beyond a single homepage.
By May 2025, a Gambling Commission investigation had uncovered breaches of anti-money laundering rules and gaps in the checks TGP Europe made on its business partners. Staying in the British market would have meant paying a £3.3 million penalty and overhauling its practices. TGP Europe handed back its licence that month.
The case makes more sense when you follow the operator rather than the logos. TGP Europe ran a number of websites using other businesses’ branding. A customer who knew only the name at the top of the bet slip could easily have missed what those sites had in common.
What the licence covers in Great Britain
A Gibraltar address in the terms tells you where the business is based. To see which activities it can offer in Great Britain, open the licence summary. LC International’s record, for example, shows active permissions for online betting on real events and for online casino games. Those are separate activities in the register, even if a customer can move from one to the other with a tap.
The Gambling Commission requires businesses offering remote gambling to consumers in England, Scotland or Wales to hold a licence from the Commission, including when the business is based overseas. If you see a licence number in the footer, look it up and compare the domain in the register with the address in your browser. While you’re there, look for an active status beside the activity you’re checking. The register also keeps records of expired licences, so a company can still appear after its licence has ended.
What happens to the money you leave there?
Suppose a racing bet has settled and you leave the winnings in your account for the next meeting. Perhaps you’re waiting for the declarations before having another bet. What would happen to that balance if the operator became insolvent? In its annual industry statistics for April 2025 to March 2026, the Gambling Commission reported that remote betting, casino and bingo operators held £886.6 million in customer accounts at the end of the reporting period.
Look in the terms for the section on customer funds. An online operator can keep customer balances in accounts separate from its own business funds and still carry a not protected rating. Under that arrangement, the balances would form part of the company’s assets in an insolvency. Higher protection ratings reflect additional arrangements, such as an independent trust account.
If you’ve already backed a horse in the next race, the stake on that open bet falls outside the Gambling Commission’s customer funds protection ratings. The winnings you left in your balance are a different matter. The same small print that tells you which company took your bet also tells you what protection, if any, applies to the money you leave with it.
David Prior
David Prior is the editor of Today News, responsible for the overall editorial strategy. He is an NCTJ-qualified journalist with over 20 years’ experience, and is also editor of the award-winning hyperlocal news title Altrincham Today. His LinkedIn profile is here.
