William Hill to close 700 betting shops; 4,500 jobs at risk

William Hill has confirmed plans to close 700 betting shops, putting 4,500 jobs at risk.

The company said on Thursday that it has seen a "significant" drop in gaming machine revenues since the government reduced the maximum stake on fixed-odd betting terminals (FOBTs) to £2 in April.

The bookmaker, which has entered into a consultation process with its staff, said "a large number of redundancies" is expected.

"The group will look to apply voluntary redundancy and redeployment measures extensively and will be providing support to all colleagues throughout the process.

"Subject to the outcome of the consultation process, shop closures are likely to begin before the end of the year."

On 1 April, the government introduced new rules to cut the maximum stake on FOBT machines to £2 from £100 in a bid to tackle gambling addiction.

In its half-year results back in August 2018, William Hill said that preliminary estimates suggested around 900 of its betting shops could become loss-making as a result of the new rules. It had already warned in May that the £2 staking limit was likely to reduce retail gaming revenues by around 35% to 45% and operating profit, after mitigation, by around £70m to £100m.

In its full-year results released in March, the company said it swung to a statutory pre-tax loss of £721m from a profit of £146m the year before. This included a non-cash writedown of £882.8m related to the UK retail business due to the changes to fixed odds betting.

Betting shop workers union, Community, said news of the store closures and job losses was "devastating".

Operations director Tom Blenkinsop said: "We will be advising our members through the consultation process.

"William Hill should immediately engage with Community, so that their staff get additional support and advice during the consultation and all measures can be taken to minimise redundancies and find alternatives.

"The Government also has a role to play and must look at what support they can offer to workers whose jobs are threatened as a consequence of changes to the law around FOBTs.

"Betting shops provide an important source of local employment and many of our members have served the company loyally for years. Workers don’t deserve to be the victims of the changes happening in the industry as a result of either government policy or the significant shift towards online gambling."

The Association of British Bookmakers cautioned in March that the changes would have "a significant impact" on the number of shops and people employed in the industry.