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UK
Casino Times
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Articles
23 March 2006
The History Of William
Hill
William
Hill are the UK's second-largest bookmaker and one of the
world's leading betting companies. We take a look at the
history of William Hill.
Founded in 1934,
William
Hill have over 70
years of experience offering betting services. Currently
they operate over 2,000 licensed betting offices in the UK.
They have over 450,000 telephone clients worldwide, making
them the world's largest telephone betting
organisation.
William Hill Through
The Years
1934: William Hill
(pictured right) founded the business in 1934.
1961: Betting shops became
legal on May 1st, William Hill initially declined to enter
this market.
1964: A 25% tax was levied
on Fixed Odds betting. This severely hampered growth of the
business.
1966: William Hill finally
bought into betting shops. In the same year betting duty was
imposed for the first time at a rate of 2.5%, later raised
to 5% in 1968 and to 6% in 1970.
1970: William Hill
retired.
1971: William Hill died on
October 16th. William Hill became part of the Sears Holdings
Group.
1988: Grand Metropolitan,
owners of Mecca Bookmakers, acquired William Hill, merging
the two companies under the William Hill name.
1989: Brent Walker
purchased William Hill. John Brown became Managing Director
of the 1800 betting shop company. The Company also has the
largest Credit Betting operation in the world. In August
William Hill were appointed Official Bookmakers to Golf's
European PGA Tour and are represented on course at major
events.
1995: The UK-sponsored
National Lottery was introduced in 1994, followed by the
National Lottery scratch card in 1995. The National Lottery
had a significant adverse effect on the profitability of
William Hill.
1996-1997: The negative
effect of the National Lottery was reduced by a reduction in
betting duty, the introduction by William Hill of new
numbers betting products, the introduction of amusement with
prizes machines (AWPs) in the betting shops and the decrease
in popularity of the National Lottery scratch cards. A
£8m loss was incurred on September 28th 1996, at Ascot
when jockey Frankie Dettori rode seven consecutive winning
horses against very high odds.
Associated reading:
Frankie
Dettori's Magnificent Seven
1997: Nomura (through
Grand Bookmaking Company Limited) purchased William Hill for
£700m from Brent Walker on October 9th 1997.
1998: William Hill's
internet sportsbook launched in May 1998.
1999: William Hill's
proposed stock market float was abandoned when the Company
was sold to Cinven and CVC Partners for £825
million.
2000: William Hill
launched an off-shore telephone betting service. A call
centre in Athlone (Republic of Ireland) took calls from
punters and passed them on for acceptance to the William
Hill International bookmaking company in Antigua. Deductions
of just 3% were levied.
2000: William Hill became
the first major bookmakers to offer a complete deduction
free betting service to UK based clients via the internet.
William Hill's domestic site charged a 5% rate of deduction.
The international site charged no deductions at all. Later,
as a special offer, the domestic site also went
deduction-free.
2000: Advertising of
off-shore betting facilities on Teletext, etc. was
banned.
2000: William
Hill Online Casino
is launched.
2001: Chancellor Gordon
Brown announced in the Budget
that betting duty was to be abolished before January 1st,
2002.
2001: October 10th,
betting duty was abolished and replaced by Gross Profits Tax
on bookmakers. Offshore telephone betting and internet
sportsbook operations repatriated to the UK.
2002: William Hill
successfully floated on June 20th 2002 on the UK Stock
Exchange at an offer price of 225 pence per ordinary share.
The offer was in excess of 10 times
oversubscribed.
2002: William Hill
purchased H&K Commissions (Bookmakers) PLC in September
2002.
2002: William Hill
purchased the Sunderland Greyhound Stadium in September
2002.
2003: William Hill
purchased the Brough Park Greyhound Stadium in March
2003.
2003: John Brown retires
as Chairman on 31st December 2003.
2004: Charles Scott is
appointed Chairman with effect from 1st January
2004.
2004: William Hill is
promoted to the FTSE 100 on 8th April 2004.
2005: Gambling Act
receives Royal Assent.
2005: In June 2005 William
Hill purchased Stanley Leisure PLC's retail bookmaking
operations in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Republic of
Ireland, Jersey and the Isle of Man.
William Hill Casino, the
UK's no. 1 online casino, are giving away a nifty £50
free to all new players plus a further £25 free every
month you play in the future. You can even collect your
winnings down the local William Hill shop!
Click
Here To Visit William Hill Casino
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