As FOBT legislation took place on 1st of April 2019, William Hill has announced that they are looking to close around 700 shops across the UK. This might impact up to 4.500 people working for William Hill.
The bookmaker published a statement related to the matter;
“This follows the Government’s decision to reduce the maximum stake on B2 gaming products to £2 on 1 April 2019. Since then the company has seen a significant fall in gaming machine revenues, in line with the guidance given when the Government’s decision was announced in May 2018.
A large number of redundancies is anticipated with 4,500 colleagues at risk. The Group will look to apply voluntary redundancy and redeployment measures extensively and will be providing support to all colleagues throughout the process.
Subject to the outcome of the consultation process, shop closures are likely to begin before the end of the year.”
William Hill currently owns around 2,300 shops and employs 12,500 people in the UK.
Earlier this year, the bookmaker announced a 7% drop in total retail revenues.
With this move William Hill is following Ladbrokes that had revealed that they might close up to 1 000 betting shops during 2019 for the same reason – FOBT legislation has caused a big revenue drop while operating costs are same or higher.
While William Hill is doing good at US market, their operation in UK continues to struggle.
