THERE has been an interesting after-shock this morning to the weekend’s controversy surrounding the Rangers running battle with the SPFL. The official the Rangers site has announced that Ladbrokes will not be providing the in stadium betting services at Ibrox next season.

➡️ Supporter Update: https://t.co/boDdEUnVHn pic.twitter.com/TX8TTWoXDD

— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) April 14, 2020

The statement reads as follows…

Supporter Update

Rangers Football Club contract with Ladbrokes as a provider of in-stadia betting services will come to an end in advance of next Season 2020/2021.

Director of Commercial & Marketing, James Bisgrove, commented “Following a number of supporter enquiries over the Easter weekend, we can confirm the arrangement with Ladbrokes, who provide betting facilities at Ibrox stadium, will not continue next season.”

In anticipation of our 150th anniversary, Rangers will continue to grow its Commercial Partnerships programme, both domestically and internationally.

Not sure why they are worried about the planning of their 150th Anniversary, they have plenty of time – 142 years to be exact!

Ladbrokes are of course the sponsors of the SPFL and were mentioned in an article an explosive article on The Celtic Star on Easter Sunday when we quoted a Celtic source on various matters this bookmaker was also being mentioned.

The Ladbrokes PR chap David Macdonald – @LadsDavid, certainly annoyed the Bears at the weekend when he made the following remarks about their fellow Rangers supporter, the Inverness CEO Scot Gardiner.

“Astonishing that Scott Gardiner would risk the finicial future of @ICTFC and other SPFL clubs.
I wonder if this crusade is an egotistical journey to increase his personal profile.
Going public with what should be confidential information is very questionable very unhelpful.”

Whether Ladbrokes involvement with the SPFL or their mention by a Celtic source in our article played any part in today’s announcement by the Rangers to their supporters is unknown at this stage. Yet it is certainly curious, it may well simply be a coincidence but you don’t get that impression reading their forums where there is a clear link to the weekend’s shenanigans and a firm belief that this is the Rangers getting some retaliation in. Angry Bears Bites back could be an appropriate headline.

Here are some of the comments. “Quick action from the club, well done”, “Nice one Rangers. I contacted their chief exec to advise I’d cancelled mommy account and will take my business elsewhere”, rather hatefully, “Well done Rangers, another beggar that can’t keep his hatred hidden bites the dust.”

“And do should every Rangers fan boycot (sic) Ladbrokes from now on, there’s (sic) plenty of other betting options,” – spelling options too.

“So Ladbrokes have been one of the dodgy hands behind the scenes? Or coincidence of timing,” this Bear asks. “I suspect we know why. Well done to the club.”

“That’ll teach ’em! A veritable howitzer of a move. Well played Rangers!”

“Hopefully the start of some real fight back from the club, well done.”

.@LadsDavid

Why did you delete this tweet? pic.twitter.com/o69bqcIFL2

— Vanguard Bears (@VanguardBears) April 12, 2020

Anyone else enjoying joining the dots? Back to the Bears…

“That’s what you get for letting your rambling PR guru loose whilst half-cut over the Easter weekend”, “Swift decisive action by Rangers, very impressed. The Ladbrokes name, must now be completely tarnished by our support and shops should be boycotted in a similar fashion to Sports Direct.”

Someone calling himself Nazi Nic @jockstan posted the image at the top of this article saying “Scottish Football – Corrupt to the core” – we did talk about The Battle of the Bulge this morning and this lot are clearly ‘Nuts’.

On and on it goes, page after page if this stuff.

A couple of points that we’d like to add ourselves.

Celtic current have a contract with Parks of Hamilton to supply our team bus. Celtic Supporters have voted in huge numbers and with a 90-10% decision to cancel this contract forthwith. Hopefully our club will take heed of the supporter’s wishes.
All isn’t as it seems as far as the Rangers statement this morning. What they failed to mention is that Ladbrokes advised the Rangers Board around six months ago that they were pulling out. We checked this out this morning and can tell you that “Ladbrokes told them 6 months ago they were ending their stadium betting operations across the board, that’ll come out soon,” a source said.

There’s more to back this inside information up emerging on social media this morning….

And btw for all those Rangers fans celebrating their club taking such a stance….Ladbrokes pulled the plug earlier this season’s cross the board. So despite the PR rhetoric and claims that Rangers cancelled the deal….it was actually Ladbrokes who called time.
😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/en1wecChqr

— Henrik’s Tongue (@henriktongue) April 14, 2020

They certainly don’t like not getting their own way do they? Oh and they are looking at alternatives and one Bear has pointed out that William Hill’s founder actually was a member of the Black and Tans. There’s a match made in hell.

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