Outside The United Kingdom
In 2009 William Hill moved its online and fixed-odds games division to Gibraltar, for tax avoidance purposes. The company's online operation had previously been based in the Dutch Antilles tax haven, until a 2007 change in the law banned non EEA-based gambling companies from advertising in the UK.
In March 2009, William Hill closed 14 of its shops in the Republic of Ireland with the loss of 53 jobs. In February 2010 it announced that the remaining 36 Irish shops were 'under review' pending the possible introduction of controversial gaming machines to Irish shops.
William Hill had pulled out of Italy in 2008 after just two years, a failure which cost the company £1m in wasted investment. The company's joint venture in Spain ended in January 2010 with partners Codere buying William Hill's 50% stakeholding for €1, after both parties had invested an 'initial' €10m in April 2008. William Hill lost £11.6m in 2008 and £9.3m in 2009 on the venture.
In September 2009, the company participated in the bidding for the first online gambling licence in India, expressing their interest to enter the Indian betting market via the remote Himalayan district of Sikkim.
In June 2012, William Hill expanded to Nevada, the only U.S. state to allow full-fledged sports wagering, buying three chains of sportsbooks: Lucky's, Leroy's, and the satellite operations of Club Cal Neva, for a total of $53 million. The deals give the company control of 55 percent of the state's sportsbook locations, but only 11 percent of statewide revenue. All three chains will be rebranded under the William Hill name.
Read more about this topic: William Hill (bookmaker)
Famous quotes containing the words united and/or kingdom:
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“...I do deeply deplore, of the sake of the cause, the prevalent notion, that the clergy must be had, either by persuasion or by bribery. They will not need persuasion or bribery, if their hearts are with us; if they are not, we are better without them. It is idle to suppose that the kingdom of heaven cannot come on earth, without their cooperation.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)