William Hill Gambling Stock

Find the latest WILLIAM HILL (WIMHY) stock quote, history, news and other vital information to help you with your stock trading and investing. The Bottom Line on LCA Stock Online gambling. Caesars Entertainment Inc. Is gearing up to potentially buy sports betting company William Hill PLC. The gaming giant has proposed to buy London-based William Hill for $3.7 billion and intends to.

William Hill today filed its full-year 2019 results, including a record $2.5 billion in stakes handled by the US sports betting business.

The operator hailed “material progress” toward its US ambitions of “growing a business of scale” in summarizing its results.

So, what did we learn from the results?

Size of William Hill US market share

Hills claimed to take one out of every four bets placed in the US. However, much of that figure is driven by its existing Nevada business. The expansion business has a 20% market share, and that falls to 9% of online and mobile.

The expansion business also posted operating losses of $33.2 million.

That figure marked a 21% improvement in FY18, but was also pumped up by a one-off $13.5 million payment from The Stars Group for skin access via Eldorado.

About that Eldorado-Caesars merger …

Speaking of Eldorado, the casino company’s acquisition of Caesars is a big win for William Hill.

Hill is the exclusive sportsbook provider for Eldorado, and that arrangement carries over to Caesars when the deal completes.

“We estimate the profit contribution possible from additional retail operations at Caesars casinos would be $20 (million)-$35 million of annual EBITDA within three years,” the Hills report said.

Gaming expansion is not a priority

US gaming seemed low on the agenda on today’s investor call. CEO Ulrik Bengtsson was asked about William Hill as a gaming brand and whether the firm would look to adopt something new for that vertical.

He suggested not, saying the point of the recently signed CBS Sports partnership was to build the William Hill brand. He also pointed out online casino was limited to a handful of states and building a nationwide gaming brand would be difficult.

Bengtsson was also asked for updates on the CBS deal but didn’t have much to add beyond the initial announcement from January.

Core Nevada business is ticking over

Hills maintained a market share of 32% across Nevada, with revenues up 2% to $107 million. Around 60% of handle was taken online.

Profits were down 17% to $35 million thanks to increased costs, Nevada operations are expected to generate enough cash next year to pay for the expansion business.

It means Hills US is expected to be breakeven in 2020 – unlike a lot of its peers.

“This is an exciting time to be William Hill’s CEO,” Bengtsson said. “Our industry is evolving and this brings great opportunities, underlining the importance of our efforts to reposition the business.”

(Bloomberg) --

In 1966, a wager on England winning the soccer World Cup helped the Done family finance the first outlet of one of the world’s largest closely held betting firms. This week, a side bet got them a cool $220 million.

That’s what Betfred Group founders Fred and Peter Done, who are worth about $1.5 billion, are set to pocket from their investment in rival William Hill Plc. The company accepted a 2.9-billion-pound ($3.7 billion) bid from Caesars Entertainment Inc. on Wednesday, capping off a month in which William Hill’s shares surged more than 50%.

Since March, the Done family has doubled its holdings in William Hill to 6%, via a company they control. The family first surfaced as significant William Hill shareholders in early 2020 and increased their stake on at least three occasions this year, filings show. One was disclosed on March 20, after markets tanked amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic and sporting events -- the lifeblood of the gambling industry -- were canceled.

William Hill has rallied about 600% since then as the company continued its expansion into the U.S., where sports betting was legalized in 2018. It was also buoyed by takeover interest not only from Caesars Entertainment, but also from Apollo Global Management Inc.

A Betfred spokesman said Fred Done has purchased shares in William Hill for the past two years. He declined to comment further.

Caesars Entertainment’s all-cash offer, which needs approval from William Hill shareholders, will also make winners out of brokerage Hargreaves Lansdown Plc and Silchester International Investors, the discrete firm set up by former Morgan Stanley banker Stephen Butt.

Fred, 77, and Peter, 73, grew up in a poor area of England. As children, the siblings helped their father run a betting business before high-street gambling outlets were legalized in the U.K.

After setting up their own firm in the 1960s, they helped to attract clients away from established betting companies including William Hill by offering large cash bonuses. Betfred now has more than 1,300 outlets across the U.K. and Ireland and launched its own U.S. sports betting exchange last year.

William Hill Gambling Stock

Betfred and the brothers’ other investments have paid out dividends of more than 100 million pounds within the past five years, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Those holdings include an e-gaming business, a litigation-funding firm and business services company Peninsula, which Peter and Fred founded in 1983 to help small firms.

The Dones set up their own family office last year, joining a growing number of wealthy families establishing their own investment firms to manage their fortunes.

William Hill Gambling Stock

“I’m in many businesses now, but bookmaking is still my first love,” Fred Done said in an interview released by Betfred in 2017. “Fixing the odds -- I enjoy it.”

(Updates William Hill’s share increase since March 20 in fourth graph and chart.)

William Hill Gambling Stocks

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