The leading UK-based bookmaker William Hill officially denied rumours related to the eventual departure of its Chairman Gareth Davis in an e-mail statement to Reuters news agency.
An official representative of the company, which only last week withdrew from the merger negotiations with the Canada-based company Amaya Inc, revealed that Mr. Davis had not planned to step down. The spokesman also said that current William Hill’s Chairman was leading the Chief Executive Officer search process and lifted the curtain, saying that the search was going well.
The bookmaker’s representative explained that Gareth Davis was also working together with Philip Bowcock in order to make sure that the company reached its paramount goals and follows its priorities. Mr. Bowcock took the role of interim CEO after the departure of James Henderson several months ago.
At the end of last week, The Times had reported that William Hill was due to start the search process for a new Chairman in 2017. The rumours happened to emerge in the public space after the current company’s chairman suffered a lot of criticism coming from the bookmaker’s main investor Parvus Asset Management that attacked him over the merger negotiations with Amaya. The UK activist investor utterly opposed the talks, saying that such a deal had “limited strategic logic” and would destroy shareholder value in case that William Hill proceeded with an agreement.
William Hill has been recently having a hard time like most betting companies in the UK. Bookmakers in the country have been hurt by tighter regulation and increased taxes, as well as by fierce competition in the industry. In addition, betting companies are forced to operate in a business environment which features users who are more oriented towards betting online or via their mobile devices.
In addition, the UK-based operator seemed more and more isolated from the industry, especially after the merger agreement between Paddy Power and Betfair was finalised to form a combined entity with larger market share. The company’s other rivals – Ladbrokes and Gala Coral, on the other hand, are getting closer to completing their merger by the day. The company, however, failed to close the talks of two potential deals over the last three months, which also had an impact on its overall performance.
Amid the consolidation of the industry, William Hill has been facing some difficulties, considering the fact that the bookmaker lost over $1 billion in its market value and parted ways with two of its top executives, including the Chief Executive Officer James Henderson who left the company in July.
- Author
Olivia Cole
