Poll: Has William Hill Online finally turned a corner?
Operator says recent digital improvements leave it “well-placed” to succeed in 2017
Despite announcing a 10% fall in group operating profit on Friday, the reaction to William Hill’s full-year results has been rather more upbeat than many people might have initially expected.
Interim boss Philip Bowcock struck a somewhat optimistic tone in the investor presentation and was keen to talk up the heavy lifting the operator had achieved to its Online business, which recorded a 3% drop in online revenues to £545m.
In a year it would likely rather consign to the memory hole, which included issuing a surprise profit warning, William Hill made a raft of changes to its senior Online team, tasked with turning around its performance.
Online management made significant improvements to make its digital business more competitive throughout 2016 , including major upgrades to the operator’s mobile app and gaming products, as well as enhancements to the customer journey.
It also claims to have addressed marketing inefficiencies after identifying a worrying trend that new customers were generating “lower-than-expected” revenue levels.
According to the operator, such changes have already led to some tangible benefits, with the value of new accounts up 29% in Q4 2016 compared to the same period in 2015 and amounts wagered in the UK improved from -1% in H1 to +5% in H2.
“2016 was a challenging year for William Hill, but one in which we made considerable operational progress, leaving us well-placed to drive the business forward in 2017,” interim boss, Phillip Bowcock, said.
“We have delivered extensive product, user experience and marketing improvements in Online, modernised our Retail management structure to focus more on the customer and continued to grow in our key international markets.
“There are now encouraging signs in all our divisions, in particular Online’s UK business, which is now delivering sustained growth.”
The market appeared to react positively to the news with the operator’s share price climbing 261.10p at the close of trading on Thursday to 272p on Friday morning. It closed the day at 267.50p.
However, despite some apparent green shoots, William Hill Online is still playing catch up with many of its competitors and it is difficult to say how long it will take for its improvements to have a positive impact to both the top- and bottom- line.
In addition, the firm has still yet to appoint a group CEO, prompting the Independent to ask last week why it had been unable to fill this position if William Hill was such an attractive proposition.
With this in mind, this week’s poll asks whether William Hill Online has finally turned a corner or whether the operator still has a long way to go?