William Hill suffers revenue fall on latest results

William Hill’s results for the 16 weeks to April were worse than many expected showing a fall in overall revenues of 3% compared to the same period in 2015. The most disappointing part is that the companies previously highly successful online business dropped 11%.

The UK bookmaker also said that its Australian business saw revenues fall 22% over the period from last year. William Hill did announce a profit warning back in March, but with Leicester Football club winning the premier league and Wiliam Hill paying out some £3 million to punters along with a disastrous Cheltenham has hit the company hard, with it saying that the Leicester result was ten times worse than any other time it had a major payout.

William Hill’s chief executive James Henderson said: ‘It has been a tough start to the year in online, which is being impacted by both regulatory change and a gross win margin below normalised levels for the period due to a disappointing Cheltenham festival and unfavourable European football results.’

The bookmaker said it still expected its operating profit for 2016 will be between £260million and £280million, compared to £291million in 2015.

Another announcement from William Hill in what is thought to be a move to boost the firms online business,   Crispin Nieboer has taken over as full time online managing director, having been appointed on an interim basis back in January.

Nieboer steps up to the role after previously serving as director of corporate development and innovation at William Hill.