Betting rules cost gambling company nearly £100m in 2019

A nationwide gambling company has announced that a new law implemented in April cost the firm nearly £100m.

William Hill, which is headquartered in London, was affected by the £2 stake limit imposed on B2 gaming products in 2019.

Following the law, the company closed 713 of its shops, and said that the overall cost of the law’s implementation had been £99.8m.

In the report today, the company also confirmed that its revenue for 2019 fell by 2 per cent from £1,621.3m to £1,581.7m, with online bets accounting for 47 per cent of the revenue.

During the period, the company also acquired the Mr Green business.

Ulrik Bengtsson, CEO of William Hill, commented: “2019 was a year of transition during which we executed on our ambition to diversify internationally with the acquisition of Mr Green and the continued strong growth of our US business.

“The group delivered a strong operating performance, ahead of our expectations and against a challenging regulatory backdrop.

“We move into 2020 in a stronger position. Almost a quarter of revenue is now generated outside the UK compared to 15 per cent in 2018.

“We made positive progress with our digital platform, launching our purpose-built platform in the US and product developments in the Online business in 2019.

“We will invest in our proprietary technology as we continue to improve the competitiveness of our customer offering. We have also made great progress embedding a culture of safer gambling across the group.

“This is an exciting time to be William Hill’s CEO. Our industry is evolving and this brings great opportunities, underlining the importance of our efforts to reposition the business. We look forward to building on these foundations with a renewed focus on customer, team and execution.”

Want your business, product or service to be seen regionally and nationally? Bdaily helps you get your story in front of the right audience, every day. Find out how Bdaily can help →

Join more than 55,000 subscribers by signing up to our daily bulletin each morning here.