Hills ready to gain edge over merging rivals, CEO says

William Hill’s focus on product development and organic growth leaves it perfectly placed to pounce on opportunities thrown-up by mergers involving some of its biggest UK rivals, the operator’s CEO James Henderson has told eGaming Review.

The bookmaker, which reported a 29% fall in online profits this morning, also announced a ?200m share buyback scheme, a move which analysts said was a strong indication of William Hill’s intentions to sit out the current M&A wave in the sector.

Betfair and Paddy Power recently joined forces to create a new powerhouse in the online gambling industry, while a merger between Ladbrokes and Gala Coral is also set to be completed later this year, subject to CMA approval.

And despite rumours of a William Hill-backed bid by NYX Gaming to acquire OpenBet, the operator has been relatively quiet on the M&A front in its core online markets, with a failed attempt to acquire 888 last year its only move of note.

And instead of preparing integration plans, William Hill has been busy rolling out its new front-end platform under Project Trafalgar, which included the launch of a new mobile product, while it also intends to increase marketing spend by a “double-digit” percentage in 2016.

Speaking to EGR this morning, Henderson said William Hill had both the scale and marketing budget to outperform rivals, particularly with ongoing mergers likely to hamstring consolidating operators.

“We do have an opportunity and yes, they say the majority of mergers, certainly over 50%, find it difficult to be successful and I think that’s a fantastic opportunity for us,” Henderson said.

“That’s the whole point about getting the platform ready for the Euros and being able to capitalise on that, getting our brand out there, and if there is any distraction, which I’m sure there will be from some of our competitors, then I think we can take advantage,” Henderson added.

Online marketing spend is set to return to 2014 (?132.1m) levels ahead of the 2016 UEFA European Championship with top-tier TV packages already in place with ITV, BT Sport and Sky Sports.

However, during this morning’s 2015 results presentation, some analysts questioned whether the marketing spend increase was aggressive enough.

The William Hill boss told EGR the operator’s marketing strategy is now far more flexible than in previous years and was focusing more on below-the-line marketing across digital channels such as PPC and SEO.

“We have the flexibility and a budget of that size to be able to use as we see fit,” Henderson said.

“It’s very much migrating to a back-end marketing now if you like, and below the line as opposed to above the line,” he added.