William Hill Australia cuts 20 trading roles
Gibraltar to provide additional pricing feeds as local branch places greater focus product and innovation
William Hill Australia (WHA) today made approximately 20 traders redundant as the operator looks to centralise its trading functions and divert additional resources into IT and product development, eGaming Review has learned.
The operator’s management announced the job cuts to affected staff this morning with the redundant trading roles to be replaced by Gibraltar-generated price feeds used by William Hill’s UK arm.
The job losses have been concentrated on William Hill’s Darwin office where the trading team is understood to have halved in number and led to both the head of sport and head of racing walking out in protest.
William Hill’s Sydney office, which houses traders of sports such as AFL and the NRL, has been largely unaffected with the Australian arm to retain responsibility for the pricing of local markets.
A spokesperson for William Hill Australia confirmed the job losses but insisted the move wasn’t cost related and that company headcount had increased significantly over the year as part of a strategy to lead on product and technology. eGR understands WHA’s IT and product team has grown from less than 50 to around 170 over the past 18 months.
“Headcount is now 50% higher than last year as William Hill continues to significantly grow its business in Australia and any changes in WHA reflect our continued focus on IT and innovation,” the spokesperson said.
“We are now leading in the Australian market in terms of our ability to give customers new and innovative products, such as in-Play and will continue to take the business in a direction that allows us to innovate quickly,” he added.
In line with its innovation push, William Hill was the first operator in the Australian online wagering market to launch an in-play betting product which enables customers to place bets via the website so long as the device’s microphone is switched on.
News of the job losses come a month after WHA reported an 89% reduction in third quarter profits following an 18% fall in amounts wagered and a 24% decline in net revenue.
The drop-off in results comes amid a wider strategy to unify its three recently acquired Australian businesses – Tom Waterhouse, Centrebet and Sportingbet – under the global William Hill brand.
Earlier this year Sportingbet Australia was rebranded under the William Hill moniker with plans to integrate Tom Waterhouse before the end of the year and Centrebet in 2016.