History of William Hill

William Hill is a bookmaker and online gaming enterprise based in the United Kingdom that was created by William Hill in 1934. Today, the organization has a poker portal, an online casino and a sportsbook to its name and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

How it All Started

Surprisingly, William Hill now a fully licensed bookmaker known for its reliability, security and transparent financial transactions, first began as a small illegal operation behind closed doors in 1934. Its founder, William Hill, first established the company as a small betting system that had bookies accepting bets via telephone. At this time, when there were no laws to protect the rights of punters, William Hill began to establish its reputation of reliability.

Punters would call in their bets via telephone and send in checks for their wagers in the mail several weeks before the sporting event could take place. This system stayed in place until 1961 when betting shops were declared legal.

William Hill Goes Legal

Although, betting was considered legal in the UK in 1961, William Hill only went above board five years later in 1966. William Hill continued to exist as a fairly small sized operation but saw things perk up with the invention of the television, when punters would visit the betting shops to watch the games it took place.

After this period, the company was taken over by Sears Holdings in the year 1971, which ran the organization for a few years and then sold it to Grand Metropolitan in 1988.

Unfortunately, Grand Metropolitan did not seem to be able to hold onto the operation and eventually sold it to Brent Walker in 1989. The company was later bought up by Nomura, Japanese investment bank who held it until 1999.

William Hill Fraud Scandal

As William Hill kept changing hands and it was noted that funds were also disappearing, the company was put under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. Grand Metropolitan was found to have been embellishing the company’s profits during its year of sale to Brent Walker.

The investigation was conducted at the time of Brent Walker’s ownership and two of William Hill’s directors were incarcerated.

When Nomura took the company over for £700 million in 1997, things tabled and the enterprise was slowly able to come out of this dark period. The United Kingdom’s national lottery which was launched in 1994 was yet another factor that spurred betting as an activity and made it more socially acceptable in the UK.

Eventually Nomura also sold William Hill in 1999 to Cinven and CVC Capital Partners, a reputed venture capitalist.

William Hill Sportsbook is Online Pioneer

Shortly before its sale to Cinven and CVC Capital Partners, William Hill made history by going online as a website. The first sector to go online was its sportsbook, since William Hill was primarily a sports betting organization at that time.

The company grew rapidly following its acquisition of more than 600 betting offices from all over the UK and Ireland. Another significant step in the history of William Hill was its partnership with Playtech, achieved in 2008.