| William Hill To Move Telebetting to Gibraltar |
William Hill's UK-based telephone betting business is set to relocate to Gibraltar in Q4 of this year in an attempt to save costs and taxes which will make them more competitive with their competition. Last year alone, Hill paid UK taxes and levies of around £265m.According to Ralph Topping, chief executive of William Hill: “This significant change to our telephone business is a response to the challenge of competing with betting exchanges and offshore telebetting operators, all of whom have benefited from significant cost and tax advantages over UK bookmakers. This has made it impossible for our existing business to compete profitability from the UK.”
This proposed move follows their decision to relocate their online division to Gibraltar last year and it is predicted that this move will save them around £4m to £7m each year in costs and taxes. The one-off cost for re-basing in Gibraltar is around £7m.
The company's Sheffield-based call centre, currently run by William Hill Credit Ltd (WHCL), will now be run by Vertex, an outsourced servicing firm, whilst the call centre in Leeds is set for closure. William Hill Online division will run the new telephone betting business from Gibraltar.
William Hill's existing telebetting operation in the UK lost £1.8m last year and expects a small operating loss in H1 2010. Although William Hill Online is comprised of a partnership between William Hill plc and online gaming software provider Playtech, all profits and losses for this new venture will be taken by William Hill, leaving Playtech to receive a flat annual telephone betting support fee of £500,000.
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