William Hill sends 2,000 letters to landlords, seeking rent reduction after FOBT cut

William Hill has reached out to around 2,000 landlords in Great Britain in hope of reducing its rents by 50%, due to the reduction in maximum stakes on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs).

willHill

The operator has mailed personal copies to each landlord, with the new FOBT limit of £2, down from £100, starting on 1 April.

William Hill recently reported a loss of £722m ($956m) before tax for 2018, compared with a profit of £147m for the previous year. This was despite revenue rising 2% from £1.59bn to £1.62bn.

Ciaran O’Brien, William Hill’s Director of Corporate Communications, told Gambling Insider: “The stake cut was always going to have a significant impact on the business and we think it could close up to 900 shops, but we aren’t going to close anything immediately. We’ll look at long-term customer behaviour and what we seek through mitigation, one of which will be through rent reductions. We will see what happens over the next 18 months.

"We are trying and encourage the landlords, given the situation on the high street, that reduced rent is better than having an empty shop and this is what we will continue to discuss.”

O’Brien declined to comment when asked what William Hill’s total cost of rent in British shops currently is or what the total would be after a 50% reduction.

 

 

Premium+ Connections
Premium

Revsharks

 
Premium

Sport Generate

 
Premium

RISK

 
Premium

Lynon

 
 
Premium

1xBet Partners

 
Premium

Digitain

 
Premium

Galaxsys

 
Premium

PIN-UP Partners

 
Premium

Imagine Live

 
Premium

GammaStack

 
Premium Connections
Consultancy

SCCG Management

Executive Profiles
Zeal Network SE

Stefan Tweraser

VIP Play

Les Ottolenghi

Scientific Games

Keshav Pitani

Social & App

Spribe CEO exclusive: Simplicity is the foundation

Spribe CEO David Natroshvili speaks to Gambling Insider abou...

Redefining iGaming: A history of crash games

Crash games is a growing vertical that has taken gambling by...

A certain something: What makes crash games special?

Crash games. They’re simple, they’re easy to learn and,...

Smarter innovation to shape the future

Spribe CCO Giorgi Tsutskiridze discusses the past, present a...

Facing Facts: The corner of quarterly contemplation

With Q1 reports out across the industry, Gambling Insider co...

Taking Stock: A guide to key stock prices across the industry

Gambling Insider tracks prices from some of the industry’s...

15 years of Gambling Insider: From the Founders

Over the last 15 years, Gambling Insider magazine has interv...

15 years of Gambling Insider: The Awards over time

Global Gaming Awards Event Manager Mariya Savova gives us he...