WILLIAM HILL - WITHINGTON

William Hill is already the leader in UK high street betting and gaming, with approximately 25% of a mature, stable LBO market. We will continue to increase our market share by investing to improve and expand our estates, by enhancing the range of products we offer and by providing high-quality customer service. We maximise the cash flows from our Retail business through tight cost control and careful capital expenditure. In creating William Hill Online, we established one of Europe’s top three online betting and gaming companies. In 2009, we have built the necessary infrastructure and products to continue to be a market leader in this high growth market. We aim to grow our UK market share and to expand into new territories, particularly in Europe, using our strong brand name, sports-betting knowledge, market-leading gaming products and marketing expertise.

Along with other UK companies, William Hill's ambitions on an international scale are limited by a complicated and ever-changing legal and regulatory situation in Europe. A high proportion of gaming industries in the EU are protected monopolies within their national boundaries. These monopolies are formally justified by the member states in question on the basis that such market constraints protect their citizens from problem gambling. The EU's policy of the free movement of goods and services has often been used to challenge these state-owned gambling monopolies by online gaming companies wanting to operate in these markets. Some countries have therefore amended their gambling laws to bring them in line with EU principles, while there are several others, including Germany, France, Holland and Denmark that are currently under pressure from the European Commission to follow suit. Gambling – particularly on sporting events – is ingrained in our culture. You can find references to it by historians throughout the ages as far back as Herodotus, Western culture’s ‘Father of History’. The English language is peppered with phrases we use without thinking about which stem from our love of gambling – ‘you bet’, ‘I bet you are’, ‘put your money where your mouth is’.