William Hill Online crowned eGR operator of the year 2011
Gamesys, Paddy Power and bwin.party scoop three trophies each.
William Hill Online has been crowned operator of the year at the eGaming Review operator awards 2011, held last night in London, with Gamesys, Paddy Power and bwin.party each scooping three trophies.
Held at the Honourable Artillery Club (HAC) in London, the annual egaming operator awards was bigger than ever this year with more than 700 online gaming professionals joining host and comedian Rufus Hound to celebrate the industry’s achievements in last 12 months.
According to eGR’s independent panel of judges William Hill Online deservedly took home the most prestigious award of the evening, with the panel describing the operator as “the turnaround story of 2011″.
“William Hill Online has transformed its brand into a dynamic fresh faced online gaming brand and their momentum shows no sign of slowing down,” they said.
Ironically, Playtech, William Hill Online’s joint venture partners that have helped the business develop and grow since signing the deal in 2008, handed the trophy to Hills Online chief executive Henry Birch. However, the partnership has not always been a happy one with Hills taking out an injunction against Playtech earlier this year, while 600 marketing staff staged a mass walkout in October amid rumours their jobs were moving to Gibraltar. This proved not to be the case, however the relationship is said to still remain on shaky ground with Hills having an option to buy out Playtech’s 29% stake in the venture in 2013.
eGR’s Facebook world exclusive was the talk of the event as a total of 28 awards were handed out by the Celebrity Juice panelist.
Gamesys, the gaming company behind bingo brand JackpotJoy, won a trio of gongs including bingo and slots operator and marketing campaign of the year with judges saying that the degree of integration between its marketing campaigns, acquisition channels, and products had “broken new ground in the sector this year”.
Irish operator Paddy Power, that has had yet another bumper year across not only the UK and Ireland but also with its acquisition of Sportsbet in Australia, took home three awards including affiliate programme, social networking operator and customer relations operator of the year. The judges called Paddy Power “the clear number one in this category, offering its customer an unparalleled level of service”.
Newly merged bwin.party, that has had a tough 2011 as its senior management looks to integrate both companies and, at the same time, deliver multi-million pound synergies, also claimed a hat-trick of awards. This included spread betting operator of the year for intertrader.com, Italian operator and the coveted socially responsible operator of the year. For its Italian award the judges said that its local brand had built up a “significant market share in one of Europe’s most important regulated markets”.
Other notable victories included 888 claiming the poker operator of the year, Bet365 winning both in-play and sports betting operator of the year and 32Red taking the casino operator of the year award back to its Gibraltar base.
The judges picked out 888 in particular saying: “After a tough few years 888poker has refocused all its attention on its core poker product, growing its player base to phenomenal levels since the beginning of the year and in particular since black Friday. Its simultaneous reboot of branding, marketing, product, poker client and positioning has been exceptional.”
Full list of winners:
Operator of the year: William Hill Online
Sports betting operator of the year: Bet365
Casino operator of the year: 32Red
Bingo operator of the year: Gamesys (for JackpotJoy)
Slots operator of the year: Gamesys (for JackpotJoy)
Poker operator of the year: 888poker.com
Mobile operator of the year: Betfair
In-play sports operator of the year: Bet365
Sports spread betting operator of the year: Sporting Index
Affiliate programme of the year: Paddy Power
Skill gaming operator of the year: 123Gaming
Rising star: mFortune mobile phone casino
Social networking operator of the year: Paddy Power
French poker operator of the year: Winamax
French operator of the year: Betclic
Innovation in gaming: Bingocams
Best website performance (sponsored by Gomez): JenningsBet
Best mobile performance (sponsored by Gomez): Coral
Gaming review site of the year: WhichBingo UK
Innovative gaming site of the year: Racing Post
Gaming community site of the year: PokerStrategy.com
Gaming comparison site of the year: Oddschecker
Marketing campaign of the year: Gamesys (for JackpotJoy)
Customer relations operator of the year: Paddy Power
Spread betting operator of the year: bwin.party digital entertainment (InterTrader.com)
Italian operator of the year: bwin Italy
Socially responsible operator of the year: bwin.party digital entertainment
One-to-watch: Wonder Bingo