William Hill online revenue partially offsets retail's 30% slump in 2020

William Hill on Thursday reported a slide in 2020 profit as it prepares for its takeover by Caesars Entertainment to complete.

Net revenue in 2020 fell 16% to GBP 1.32 billion (USD 1.82 billion) as the pandemic led to disruption of live sporting events, closures and restrictions to retail and casinos, though this was partially offset by online gaming, which accounts for 61% of group revenues and delivered 9% net revenue growth. The retail arm slumped to a £29.5 million loss as like-for-like revenues plunged 30%. William Hill operates around 1,400 betting stores in the UK. 

William Hill swung to a pretax profit of GBP 51.0 million from 2019's GBP 37.6 million loss, after taking GBP134.1 million in exceptional items and adjustments in 2019. On an adjusted basis, profit slumped 91% to GBP 9.1 million in 2020.

Ulrik Bengtsson, CEO of William Hill, said: “In what was an extraordinary year, I am immensely proud of how the Group has responded and the resilience we have seen in our performance.” He said the group’s betting shops traded strongly when they were able to open. "Retail bounced back very quickly and I anticipate that to happen again, we can then assess the long-term performance," he said. “We will come back strongly and quickly.”

Looking to the year ahead, William Hill said it expects the pandemic will continue to hit the health of the UK high street and affect the ability of US casinos and its retail shops to full open. "Nonetheless, the momentum that built into the year end, driven by our Customer, Team, Execution strategic priorities, has been maintained into the first quarter of 2021. The US and Online continued to benefit from the product upgrades and the roll-out of our proprietary platform in 2020 and we saw staking during the Super Bowl nearly double compared to last year," the company stated.

The firm added that Caesars' current expectation is that the remaining approvals needed from US gaming authorities will be received in time to allow the acquisition to complete in the second quarter of 2021 and "possibly as early" as March 2021.