Description
William Hill is a British gambling company founded in 1934. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Business operations are led from its headquarters in London, with a satellite office in Malta. The company was previously listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Caesars Entertainment in April 2021. In July 2022, William Hill was subsequently bought by 888 Holdings for £2.2 billion.
History
The company was founded by William Hill in 1934. It changed hands many times, being acquired by Sears Holdings in 1971, then by Grand Metropolitan in 1988, then by Brent Walker in 1989. In September 1996, Brent Walker recouped £117m of the £685m it had paid for William Hill when Grand Metropolitan was found to have exaggerated the company's profits at the time of the sale.
Japanese investment bank Nomura mounted a £700m leveraged buyout of William Hill in 1997. In February 1999, a proposed stock market flotation was abandoned due to "weak interest" and Nomura sold the company to funds managed by private equity firms Cinven and CVC Capital Partners for £825m instead.
The company was eventually listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2002. The following year chief executive David Harding was awarded a £2.84m bonus, making him the UK's fifth highest paid company director in 2003. It acquired Sunderland Greyhound Stadium in 2002 and Newcastle Greyhound Stadium in 2003. In June 2004 Harding sold £5.2m of shares to fund his divorce, precipitating a decline in the company's stock that wiped £75 million off the value of the company. In 2005, William Hill bought 624 betting offices in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man and Jersey from Stanley Leisure for £504 million: the acquisition briefly took the company past Ladbrokes into first position in the UK betting market in terms of shops but not revenue. The Office of Fair Trading made William Hill sell 78 of the 624 Stanley shops due to concerns over anti-competitive practices.
In November 2008, William Hill went into partnership with Orbis (latterly OpenBet), and Israeli software company Playtech, to remedy its own failing online operation. The same month, analysts at UBS noted "concern" at the company's level of debt, which stood at over £1 billion and was later reported as £1.5 billion. In 2009, the company enacted both a rights issue and a corporate bond issue, in an effort to restructure its debt.
From 2001 until 2009, William Hill paid George Howarth, a Member of Parliament, £30,000 to act as a parliamentary adviser. While on William Hill's payroll he tabled amendments to the 2003 budget proposing tougher levels of taxation for person-to-person betting exchanges. Howarth left the role in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandal.
Under the terms of the deal, William Hill paid Playtech's founder Teddy Sagi £144.5 million for various assets and affiliate companies. These included several online casino sites which William Hill continues to run under the name WHG. Playtech took a 29% stake in the new William Hill Online entity. The company wrote-off a reported £26m when scrapping its previous in-house system. In June 2009 William Hill backed Playtech despite its partner having a quarter of its stock market value wiped out following a profits warning.
In 2013, William Hill paid £424 million ($643 million) for full control of its online business marking an accelerated expansion and resulted in the dissolution of the partnership with Playtech. In May 2015, William Hill presented prototype of "Get In The Race" – a virtual horse racing application. On 2 August 2016, it acquired Grand Parade, the betting and gaming digital solutions company for £13.6 million in cash and shares.
In 2018, William Hill was fined £6.2 million by the Gambling Commission for systematic failures regarding anti-money laundering and problem gambling. The operator was found to have accepted large deposits of cash linked to criminal activity between 2014 and 2016, resulting in £1.2 million in financial gains. William Hill was ordered to return the £1.2 million profit, plus pay a penalty of £5 million for breaching regulations.
On 7 January 2019, William Hill received regulatory approval to conclude its purchase of Mr Green for £242 million. On 17 July 2020, William Hill raised £224 million in a new ordinary share rights issue to provide a timely capital boost during the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2020, as a result of the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company announced that it would close 119 shops permanently. Despite that, only 16 employees would lose their job positions, while the others would be assigned to new positions. It also announced that the firm would be merging its retail and online operations.
On 30 September 2020, William Hill agreed to a £2.9 billion takeover bid by Caesars Entertainment, the Nevada-based casino operator. The deal was unanimously recommended by the UK company's directors. It came after two rival bids by the US private equity group Apollo were turned down. In April 2021, Caesars completed its acquisition of William Hill and the company was delisted from the London Stock Exchange.
As Caesars was interested only in William Hill's industry expertise and its US operations, the European business was put up for sale, attracting bids from 888 Holdings, Apollo, and CVC. In September 2021, Caesars agreed to sell the European business to 888 Holdings for £2.2 billion. However, in July 2022, 888 reduced its offer to £1.95 billion and this was accepted. The sale was completed in July 2022.
On 28 March 2023, the UK Gambling Commission ordered three William Hill Group companies—WHG (International) Limited, Mr Green Limited, and William Hill Organization Limited—to pay a record £19.2 million for social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures. Commenting on the penalty package, Andrew Rhodes, Gambling Commission chief executive, said: "When we launched this investigation the failings we uncovered were so widespread and alarming serious consideration was given to licence suspension. However, because the operator immediately recognised their failings and worked with us to swiftly implement improvements, we instead opted for the largest enforcement payment in our history."
