Roger Devlin will join the board of William Hill as chairman-delegate at the start of next month and take over the reins of the UK bookmaking giant on April 2.
Devlin has worked at the Football Association and with horse and greyhound racing broadcaster SIS and joins a company that has just announced an unexpected operating profit for 2017 of around £290 million, an increase of 11 per cent on the previous year. The boost has been largely attributed to favourable results in racing and football but one of the chairman’s first actions could be to pull his firm out of the Australian betting market.
The British bookmaker bought its way into the Australian market under former chief executive Ralph Topping with the purchase of Sportingbet in 2013 as well as the acquisition of tomwaterhouse.com the same year. But the Australian government is considering changing the levy on gambling revenue so that it mimics the UK’s new point of consumption tax, which allows tax authorities to seek renumeration from its own residents, wherever they are placing their bets. Prior to the implementation of the tax in the UK, several companies had offshore bases in places such as Gibraltar and Malta to avoid UK duties – that loophole has now closed. Australia also want to ban credit betting, which would be another blow to British bookmakers who already have a foothold in the Australian market.
All of which explains why William Hill were exploring the possibility of a takeover or merger with Australia-based CrownBet at the end of last year. Reports suggest those talks are still ongoing but they’ll need to reach a successful conclusion quickly if the UK bookmaker is to remain a part of the Australian betting scene. It may decide to look at expanding its US business instead, though that is generally also meshed in local regulations designed to make life as difficult as possible for off-course bookmakers.
The company’s share price is on the rise for now, however, and bosses are looking forward to 2018 and the upcoming World Cup, always a good opportunity to attract new custom both online and in its still considerable high-street presence.
