LDP is a safe bet for Coral Eurobet

High street bookmaker Coral Eurobet has appointed Lumsden Design Partnership to conceive a radical flagship store.

It will be designed to shake up conventional notions of the betting shop format, by creating what LDP managing director Callum Lumsden calls ‘the betting shop of the future’.

The consultancy won the contract following a three-way, paid pitch against Design House and Redjacket last month. It will first develop the flagship store, opening next March, after which the format will be rolled out to a number of the company’s 1100 outlets across the country. The location of the flagship is yet to be decided.

‘We want to do something that is as much of a world-beater as we can manage,’ says Lumsden. ‘We are taking a look at the whole package of location, look and experience and will try to get rid of the stigma of betting shops.’

LDP worked on the Coral identity in 2003 and Lumsden overhauled Coral outlets 15 years ago. ‘People said at the time that customers wouldn’t like the changes, but it worked fine,’ he says.

The redesigned format will use leading edge technology to set the shops apart from the competition, says Lumsden, declining to reveal any further details on the plans.

Betting shop operators have been spurred by the success of on-line gambling. Lumsden says profits are helping to finance store concept developments that will attempt to lure a wider range of customers into the high street shops.