Founded in 1934, William Hill Is the Most Recognised and Trusted Brand in an Increasingly Competitive Betting and Gaming Market
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Superbrands UK Annual V19 Founded in 1934, William Hill is the most recognised and trusted brand in an increasingly competitive betting and gaming market. With a diverse range of sports betting, gaming products and services, William Hill is now a truly global brand, attracting millions of customers from the UK, Spain, Italy, Australia, Nevada and more. Market or electronically through self-service betting In 2017, the UK gambling industry was worth terminals. For gaming, it offers electronic £13.7bn and employed over 100,000 people. roulette, blackjack, slots and an array of other Remote betting, which is predominantly online, casino-style games on its gaming machines. is now the largest sector at 34%. The UK is also the world’s largest regulated online gambling Since 1998, William Hill has also been providing market, four times bigger than Italy or Australia. online betting services, and is now one of the Employing over 16,000 people in nine countries, leading online betting and gaming providers William Hill continues to invest in its people and in the UK. With more than a million betting technology to maintain its market-leader status. opportunities on offer every week, William Hill provides in-play and pre-match sports betting Product as well as a wide range of gaming products. William Hill is a leading provider of licensed betting offi ces (LBOs) in the UK, with 2,372 In-play (betting during the course of a live event) shops nationwide. has become increasingly popular in recent years and amounted to nearly half of William Hill’s In its shops, customers will fi nd a wide array sports turnover in 2017. The bookmaker is also the of betting opportunities, from football to horse leading provider of online casino games to the UK, of tools to help customers gamble safely, racing, virtual racing and numbers betting. with its exclusive Vegas platform proving very from setting time and spend limits on gaming Today, every major event comes with betting odds popular, particularly with sports betting customers. machines to information on support services attached, from royal weddings to Royal Ascot, and self-exclusion systems. general elections and reality TV. Customers can In all of its retail and online channels, William Hill bet over-the-counter with a betting slip or coupon, encourages responsible gambling, with a range Achievements The increasing use of mobile technology has been a key trend in the gambling industry in recent years, and mobile betting and gaming continues to be a major focus for William Hill. Its Sports iOS App is the most downloaded Sportsbook app in the Apple App Store, with over 2.8m downloads. The bookmaker has also taken its mobile and online offering into a number of other countries, focusing on markets with a strong gambling culture and a competitive, regulated industry which gives it the ability to offer a broad sports betting product range and casino gaming. William Hill is now a top three online sports betting operator in Italy and Spain, and one of the largest online betting companies in Australia with nearly 250,000 active customers. Recent Developments Project Trafalgar – the biggest technology project ever undertaken by William Hill – has been a major step forward on its technology journey. Trafalgar was a comprehensive overhaul of the entire web architecture; with a new front-end experience superbrands.uk.com 555944_SB18_p120-121_William5944_SB18_p120-121_William Hill.inddHill.indd 120120 229/01/20189/01/2018 007:307:30 William Hill Brand History 11934934 William Hill begins business as a post and telephone betting service. 11961961 On 1st May betting shops become legal in the UK. 11966966 William Hill buys into betting shops and starts to acquire existing betting businesses. 11971971 William Hill dies, having retired the previous year. 11994994 It becomes legal to accept football pools coupons in betting shops. 11997997 Nomura purchases William Hill for £700m from Brent Walker. 11998998 William Hill launches its online Sportsbook. 22000000 William Hill is the fi rst major bookmaker to offer a deduction-free betting service through the internet. 22000000 William Hill launches an online casino. 22002002 William Hill is fl oated on the London stock exchange at 225p per share. 22011011 American Wagering Inc, Neva Sportsbook Operations and Brandywine Bookmaking in the US are aquired. 22012012 William Hill becomes the fi rst European gaming operator to be awarded a full gaming license in Nevada. 22014014 William Hill’s Sportsbook app passes two million downloads. 22017017 Project Trafalagar, its biggest technology project ever undertaken, goes live. for desktop, mobile web and native app users, DID YOU KNOW? search, the latter of which now commands the which gave William Hill complete control over largest share of the bookmaker’s online spend. the interfaces that customers experience. At it’s peak, William Hill William Hill also sponsors a wide range of sports Technical updates can now be released much and events, such as the William Hill World Darts faster, moving from around 10 a year to multiple processed 10, 346 bets Championship, tennis, boxing and football, releases in a single day, which enables William per minute during the 2017 including the William Hill Scottish Cup. Hill to further enhance its position as a market leader. The company has also unlocked the ability Grand National. The bookmaker is also an offi cial partner to deliver a single experience across multiple digital of three of the most iconic teams in English platforms, from mobile to desktop to retail, Premier League, Chelsea, Everton and Tottenham supporting its omni-channel strategy that aims Promotion Hotspur. All these key partnerships enable to bring a more consistent ‘one William Hill’ With a network of 2,372 shops, there is a good William Hill to engage with the supporters experience to customers. chance that one of William Hill’s shop posters of these sports and clubs on a regular basis. or digital screens will catch the eye of those Project Trafalgar also helped William Hill learn more frequenting the high street. Throughout the Brand Values about its customers’ use of its web and mobile year, the company also runs ads in the most William Hill fi rmly believes in aiming to ‘go one products, constantly mapping their journeys popular UK national newspapers and impactful better’ than its competition, with the mantra to improve and evolve the products customers TV ads around live sporting events on Sky, ‘It’ll do will never do’ used as a guiding principal currently enjoy, as well as launching new output ITV and BT Sport. for everything it does. The company is also that anticipates what they will want in the future. committed to providing betting and gaming This has allowed William Hill to further differentiate William Hill’s marketing strategy has evolved experiences that its customers can enjoy responsibly. its betting and gaming experiences, which is to refl ect the growth of online and mobile betting. increasingly important in the competitive landscape. It invests heavily in social media, SEO and paid williamhillplc.com 555944_SB18_p120-121_William5944_SB18_p120-121_William Hill.inddHill.indd 121121 229/01/20189/01/2018 007:307:30.