As reported recently, one of the biggest United Kingdom-based sportsbetting and gambling operators William Hill is about to shut down around 700 betting shops. This will naturally result in an enormous amount of jobs at risk. The company’s officials in their official press release stated that the main reason for these actions can be found in the nation’s most recent, stricter rules related to fixed-odds gambling terminals or for short FOBTs.
In their official press release, the company’s team also said that if William Hill closes 700 betting shops, almost 10,000 jobs will be at risk. While 10,000 jobs are at risk it is more likely that around 4,500 people working at these shops will lose their jobs. In the case of happening this, the company has promised to utilize some kind of voluntary redundancies in order to help their released employees find some other, alternative working positions.
Employing Around 16,600 People
William Hill is one of the most prominent names in the world of betting. The company was founded back in 1934 by William Hill. Currently, it is based in London, England. William Hill emerged on the scene when gambling activities were illegal in the United Kingdom. Throughout its existence in the industry, the company has changes hands multiple times as it was acquired by several different companies at different times.
First of all, William Hill was acquired by Sears Holdings back in 1971 which did not last for long as in 1988, Grand Metropolitan decided to purchase the company. This was also short-lived as in 1998, the company was bought by Brent Walker and then in 1997, Nomura which is a Japanese investment bank mounted around £700m million leveraged buyout of the company. Five years later, the company was finally listed on the London Stock Exchange and its stocks are still there.
William Hill as one of the biggest companies of this kind in the industry operates worldwide. Currently, the company employs around 16,600 people who work in its main offices located in the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, and Ireland. The company also has a number of telebetting centers as well as a number of betting shops which process over one million betting slips every single day.
Regulatory Changes Slashing the FOBT Maximum Stake Per Spin
The latest news on the company’s betting shops details that William Hill is about to close around 700 betting shops due to the latest regulatory chances which hit the industry. These change actually came into force back in April of this year which slashed the FOBT maximum stake from $125 or £100 per one spin to only $2.50 or £2. These changes led many other operators such as Betfred and Ladbrokes Coral Group to unveil very similar reduction plans.
In fact, it was reported that the company which operates Ladbrokes Coral Group named GVC Holding may be forced to close around 900 of its betting shops which will result in around 5,000 job losses. Moreover, Betfred has also announced closures of 500 of its facilities which will result in around 2,500 redundancies. If this happens, around 2,100 land-based gambling outlets which represent around a quarter of the UK’s land-based gambling venues will close their doors and around 12,500 people will lose their jobs.
