Playtech contract helps William Hill

(UK).- Leading British betting firm William Hill has released its preliminary results for the previous 17 weeks showing a 6.5 % increase in net revenues year-on-year helped by its expanded online business.

2009-05-12

United Kingdom

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The London-based giant launched a bespoke William Hill Online division in December in partnership with leading software developer Playtech Limited to create one of Europe’s largest virtual betting and gaming businesses.

Net revenues from its new online business increased by 50 % compared with its standalone William Hill interactive division last year. In addition, overall net revenues from gaming rose by 77 % and 13 % on a pro forma basis.

“On an unaudited pro forma basis, taking into account the performance of the acquired assets in the comparator period, net revenues increased by approximately ten percent,” read a statement from William Hill. “Our strong focus is on integrating these assets into our existing business and integration is on track.”

William Hill launched a new sportsbook service in December using technology from Orbis and revealed that its net revenues were similar to the comparable period in 2008.
“However, there has been encouraging growth in customer accounts and, in the later weeks of the period, we saw double-digit growth in the number of slips and in turnover following a substantial increase in the number of markets and products offered to customers on the sportsbook,” read the statement.

“In January and February, we launched our standalone casino and poker websites on Playtech’s software and the iPoker network and both are performing in line with expectations. All our poker is now run on Playtech’s iPoker network and we expect to migrate the main William Hill casino to Playtech software later in the year.”

William Hill revealed that gross win from its retail operations increased by two percent while over-the-counter gross win fell by 5 % due to the cancellation of approximately one-third of the UK’s scheduled horserace meetings at the start of the year. In addition, results swung strongly in the favour of customers over March including at the Cheltenham festival before rebounding in April assisted by a good Grand National result.

“Although the economic and competitive environment remains challenging, our results show continuing resilience,” said Ralph Topping, CEO for William Hill. “Integration of our online business is progressing with an encouraging increase in the number of customer accounts and we look forward to reaping the full benefits of this developing business.”