 William Hill Sells
Italian Division
William Hill has
withdrawn from Italy
after 18 months,
writing off £1m and
agreeing to sell its
embryonic joint
venture. The move
comes six months
after the bookmaker
was forced to write
off £26m as it
ditched an in-house
betting software
development
programme.
New chief executive
Ralph Topping is
also planning to
overhaul William
Hill's
underperforming
online poker
operation. The poker
business, which has
struggled to
increase player
numbers, is a major
licensee for
software firm
CryptoLogic but an
exclusive deal
between the two
comes up for renewal
at the end of the
year. Topping is
considering
switching to one of
a handful of poker
network providers
that are
increasingly
dominating the
industry, offering
hundreds of millions
of dollars in prize
money every month.
Italy, along with
parts of Spain, has
been targeted by
several British
bookmakers as the
government has begun
to liberalise its
betting shop
industry. Gala
Coral's Eurobet has
403 shop and kiosk
licences in Italy
while Ladbrokes has
142 licences and has
acquired 25 already
trading betting
shops.
About 12,000 Italian
licences were
granted in 2006,
adding to about
1,000 existing
sites, but William
Hill's joint venture
with Spanish gaming
firm Cordere won
only 57. Yesterday
William Hill, which
has managed to open
no more than a
couple of Italian
betting shops, said
the operation was
"insufficient in
scale to provide an
attractive long-term
return". It has
agreed to sell the
joint venture to
Turkish rival
Intralot for €5.5m
(£4.3m).
The UK bookmaker
will make a £1m
write-off as it
exits Italy. It
remains committed to
its joint venture in
Spain with Cordere,
which trades as
Victoria, though
European expansion
will not be a
priority while the
group focuses on
returning its
struggling online
business to growth.
Topping, has been
reviewing priorities
for Britain's
largest bookmaker
and believes the
online business will
eventually generate
25% to 30% of group
gross win (balance
of earnings after
paying out
winnings). Within
that, online gaming
- including poker -
is expected to
overtake
conventional
betting.
William Hill's
online division last
year saw gross win
slide 8% while
operating profit
fell 17% as the
website lost to
competitors. The
group has brought in
software firm Orbis
to upgrade betting
capability and the
revamped website
will be launched in
November.
Meanwhile, Topping
is believed to
regard the group's
current online poker
deal with
CryptoLogic as
unsustainable. He is
seeking to pool
player numbers with
other smaller online
poker businesses in
to compete with
larger players. If a
collaborative
solution is not
found, William Hill
will sign up with a
large poker network
provider.
London-listed
Playtech is believed
to be a contender to
succeed CryptoLogic.
The number of
players on its
iPoker network
overtook numbers
playing with
PartyGaming's
PartyPoker, making
iPoker the third
largest poker
liquidity pool after
PokerStars and Full
Tilt which continue
to take bets from
the US despite
introduction of
tough anti-online
gaming laws.
-----
Simon Bowers
The Guardian
Originally published
July 2, 2008 8:30 pm
EST
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