United States
United Kingdom
The first 17 weeks of 2018 were a good time for British bookmaker William Hill and its shareholders.
One of the main reasons for this is because the bookmaker has posted some better than expected online financial results.
William Hill saw a 4 percent drop in revenue coming from its brick-and-mortar businesses, but overall revenue was still up by 3 percent due to its online betting platform.
William Hill has confirmed a 12 percent increase in its online revenue and revealed that wagers were down by 8%, but the total win margin was a lot better than the previous period.
It is due to the higher win margin that William Hill’s online sportsbook performed so well. The British bookmaker saw a 17% increase in total revenue and an 8% increase in casino profits. This is good news for William Hill as the company could be negatively impacted by the British government’s plans to interfere with fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs).
The plan is for the government to put a cap on the bets that people can make at these terminals. This will potentially hit the earnings of many sportsbooks in the UK and as a result William Hill and others British bookmakers are looking to make up for a possible loss in revenue by boosting their online revenues.
William Hill Targets FIFA World Cup
The trading report released by William Hill also detailed some of company’s plans for the future. The sports bookmaker has set its focus on the 2018 FIFA World Cup which is scheduled to take place in June in Russia. For one, it is focusing on the World Cup coming
up.
To prepare for the FIFA World Cup, the company has enhanced its Sportsbook app to make it load faster and be a lot easier to navigate. William Hill has also come out with a number of new promotions and added more options to its sports betting offerings to increase the potential for cross sales. It is not just the app getting improvements. William Hill is boosting its media offerings. There are improvements to William Hill Radio and TV. Soon there will be a betting TV archive available.
William Hill also has the US in its sights and is very keen on launching sports betting operations in America. Sports betting is currently banned in the US but that could also change because of New Jersey attempt to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA).
