Ladbrokes today unveiled a host of new media initiatives to allow punters to bet via the Internet or digital TV.
It is launching two betting sites and has clinched partnerships with media companies including the interactive TV service Open, Telewest and Cable & Wireless Communications.
The media deals will see Ladbrokes offer interactive betting to cable and satellite customers.
Open, backed by BT, BSkyB, HSBC and Matsushita, will see its 2.6 million subscribers able to gamble digitally when Ladbrokes launches the service at the start of the football season.
Cable & Wireless' near-70,000 customers will see the betting service come on stream next quarter.
And Telewest's Active Digital subscribers will be able to gamble on the service from next month.
Ladbrokes has also struck a deal with TV services group Two Way TV to offer the betting services to cable customers.
The internet sites it is launching are a football site, bet.co.uk and Ladbrokes.com, a tax-free international betting service.
The initiatives are part of an ongoing #100 million investment in development, partnerships and promotion.
Peter George, chief executive of the Hilton Group which owns Ladbroeks, said: "The series of UK partnerships we are announcing today will enable Ladbrokes, the world's leading betting group, to reach a far wider and more affluent audience."
He added: "Within weeks we'll enter a new era of betting when we launch our interactive digital TV service, and we are already working with WAP technology to bring betting to mobile phones and other wireless mobile devices."
