William Hill serves-up Australian Open sponsorship deal

William Hill has become the official betting partner of tennis’ Australian Open in a multi-year deal which also includes a number of lead-in events to the first Grand Slam of the year.

The agreement sees William Hill become the first bookmaker to sponsor a Grand Slam event, with the Australian Open said to be Australia’s largest annual sporting occasion.

As part of the deal, the operator will also sponsor the Emirates Australian Open Series which is comprised of the Hopman Cup in Perth, the Brisbane International, Apia International Sydney, Hobart International and the World Tennis Challenge in Adelaide.

News of the sponsorship deal comes after William Hill this morning announced a dramatic fall in its Australian arm’s Q3 operating profit, revenues and amounts wagered, with the three KPIs down 91%, 36% and 31% respectively.

William Hill CEO James Henderson attributed the fall to punter friendly results, however, the firm is also in the midst of a major rebranding exercise which will eventually see its four Australia-facing brands brought under the one moniker.

The rebranding and migration of Sportingbet to William Hill took place earlier this year while Tom Waterhouse will go under the knife before the year’s end and Centrebet’s switch has been scheduled for early 2016.

Analyst Simon French of Cenkos Securities described the Q3 Australia performance as “terrible” and said the operator’s move to a single William Hill brand was “clearly proving a struggle”, while Ivor Jones of Numis commented that Hills continued to “endure the restructuring of its brands and customer base”.

While the rebranding exercise takes place, the operator has pulled back marketing spend on the legacy brands in order to focus on building awareness of William Hill, something which should be boosted by this Australian Open deal.

“William Hill and the Australian Open is the perfect match,” Tom Waterhouse, William Hill Australia CEO, said. “Both brands are among the most respected, innovative and technologically advanced in the world in our fields and we are looking forward to a long and successful partnership.

“We will continue to extend our vast product range to include the ability to live stream matches and bet In-Play, with the focus to remain on bringing the most unique, engaging and relevant experiences to all tennis fans,” he added.

The tournament gets underway on 18 January and William Hill said it would extend its sponsorship rights with Tennis Australia to work with the official Australian broadcast partner in Channel 7, via an exclusive advertising package across both television and digital.