William Hill
William Hill plc (LSE: WMH) is one of the largest bookmakers in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are in the north London suburb of Wood Green and in Leeds, West Yorkshire. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
he Company was founded by William Hill in 1934. It changed hands many times being acquired by Sears Holdings in 1971, then by Grand Metropolitan in 1988, then by Brent Walker in 1989, then by Nomura in 1997 and Cinven and CVC Capital Partners in 1999. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2002.
It acquired Sunderland Greyhound Stadium in 2002 and Brough Park Greyhound Stadium in 2003.
In 2005 William Hill bought 624 betting offices in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man and Jersey from Stanley Leisure for £504 million: the acquisition took the company past Ladbrokes into first position in the UK betting market.
In 2008 Ralph Topping was appointed Chief Executive: he took a Saturday job at a William Hill betting shop near Hampden Park, Glasgow, in 1973 and worked his way up through the ranks.
In November 2008 William Hill announced a joint venture partnership with Playtech to enhance its online operations.
The Company operates in the UK, the Republic of Ireland and most recently have opened chains in Madrid in Spain under the ‘Victoria’ banner. It also offers betting by phone and over the internet as well as through its bookmaking shops. The internet section has grown fastest in recent years, although its telebetting call centres took 125,000 bets on the 2007 Grand National and its betting shops process more than 889,000 betting slips on an average day.
As well as its online sportsbook operations, the company also offers online casino games, skill games, online bingo and online poker.
The poker room sponsors the William Hill Poker Grand Prix, and the company promotes sporting literature through its annual William Hill Sports Book of the Year award.
Willaim Hill free bets – The new free bets offer is for £25, after you have opened an account simply deposit and have a £25 bet and William Hill will match it with a £25 free bet. When opening your account use Promo Code ‘F25′.
Willaim Hill free bets now come in the format of bet one get one free. Generally when a major sporting event (i.e live football match) is coming up, William Hill will offer you a fre bet on that event provided you have already had a bet on that event, encouraging customer loyalty.
William Hill also offer a Poker £400 new player bonus and £25 in free chips for use in their Casino.