William Hill "competitive" in marketing despite cutbacks
© Hannah Smiles | smilesimages.com
CEO James Henderson says operator is âwhere it wants to beâ as marketing spend as a percentage of revenues falls from 28% to 22%
William Hill is confident of maintaining its strong visibility in the UK online gambling market despite its online arm cutting overall marketing spend by £11m in H1 2015, group CEO James Henderson said today.
According to the operatorâs financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2015, marketing spend stood at £61.4m during H1 2015, down from 28% of net revenues to just 22%, with it expected to fall to 21% by the year end.
On a full-year basis marketing spend is expected to fall below 2014 levels in absolute terms, although it would represent a slight increase if spend during the 2014 World Cup was adjusted out. Last year the firm said it had budgeted to make £15-20m of savings to help mitigate the impact of the UK Point of Consumption (PoC) tax, the majority of which was expected to come from its marketing budget.
However, despite competitors Betfair and Paddy Power ramping up their marketing activity and William Hill feeling a squeeze on profit margins from Poc, Henderson said he was happy with the firmâs current marketing strategy.
âI think itâs fair to say that weâre incredibly competitive [and] weâre getting the assets that we want within the expenditure that we need to do,â he said.
âOur share of voice is projected to be 19-20% overall and 20-21% for live football, making us, we believe, top two [behind bet365],â Henderson added.
Earlier this year William Hill announced it had secured headline TV advertising packages for the 2015-16 football season with BT Sport and Sky, which includes the rights to advertise first during the half-time advertising break.
Today the operator revealed it had also sealed an 18-month deal for a âtop ITV bookmaker packageâ including the Euro 2016 and the Rugby World Cup, plus âperimeter packagesâ for exposure to the English Premier League, The Championship, cup games, La Liga and Copa Del Rey.
And in response to a question from Morgan Stanley analyst Vaughan Lewis during its investor presentation this morning, Henderson said William Hill would remain open-minded to increasing its marketing investment to ramp up growth.
âItâs always flexible and if we feel weâre not remaining competitive then weâll do something about it but I believe weâre absolutely where we want to be,â he said.