Ulrik Bengtsson on William Hill's comprehensive US strategy

William Hill CEO Ulrik Bengtsson excited investors yesterday by offering a surprisingly in-depth look into the operator’s US business.

The biggest takeaway from Hills’ H1 report was arguably the operator’s tie-up with Eldorado, which has granted it access to 29 Caesars’ sportsbooks across the US.

The opportunity provided some much-needed positivity after the post-Covid-19 results made bleak reading for retail, particularly in the UK.

Hills will also storm into the New Jersey (NJ) igaming market very soon, which saw analysts probe Bengtsson on how the Caesars brand could boost business.

Here’s what was said:

Caesars integration in motion

According to Bengtsson, Hills has already integrated two of Caesars’ retail sportsbooks onto its proprietary betting platform, including its Paris and Link sites in Las Vegas.

“We will continue according to our structured roll-out schedule for that so it is moving quickly at pace,” Bengtsson told analysts.

In operating these additional sportsbooks, Hills expects to gain total betting market share of 26% across the US, with access to six new states and an estimated additional income of $30m a year.

Bengtsson told analysts the operator would take a “multi-brand” approach to its deal with Caesars, opting to keep the Caesars brand in select states while switching to the Hills domain in others.

“We see it as quite beneficial to run a multi-brand strategy. We are used to running multi-brand in Europe and it works very well in the territory,” he said.

“There will be many territories where Caesars will be our lead brand for a number of reasons and in other territories William Hill is the lead brand and that’s going to work very well,” Bengtsson added.

William Hill CEO Ulrik Bengtsson

New Jersey igaming imminent

Hills will join the NJ igaming fray in several weeks, Bengtsson revealed to analysts and investors.

Despite being late to the party, the CEO has ambitions for the vertical to double the operator’s market share in New Jersey, which Eilers & Krejcik Gaming estimates it to be around 8%.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty clearly in the US, but over time gaming has the potential to double our market share in New Jersey because we are playing in the gaming segment and it’s about the same size of sportsbook,” Bengtsson said.

Considering the relative maturity of the NJ market, Bixteth Partners analyst Simon French recently told EGR he did not expect Hills to secure a meaningful piece of the pie.

“Fundamentally, Hills doesn’t have a huge amount of proprietary gaming products and therefore will be reliant on third-party suppliers, a lot of which are already present in New Jersey through supply arrangements with other operators,” French said.

“It feels like Hills are coming late to a party that is already in full swing,” he added.

From the outside, it appeared as though Caesars’ substantial gaming database could be of major benefit to Hills. However, Bengtsson revealed the firm does not have access to Caesars’ igaming assets as part of the Eldorado deal.

Negative numbers

Across the business, revenue for H1 suffered on the Covid-19 fallout, with 119 of the operator’s UK retail sites to close permanently.

US numbers were largely similar to the UK, with first half revenue slipping 29% on the previous year and amounts wagered dropping by 30% to $704.5m (£550m).

New CFO Matt Ashley spoke of Covid-19’s impact on footfall in Nevada as retail books closed in March and the state struggled to grow online revenue in the face of strict in-person registration requirements, which also required users to visit a Hills venue to cash-out winnings.

Ashley insisted the books were not hit as hard as those on the Las Vegas strip as most were just outside of the gambling tourist hub.

“In early [post-Covid-19] trends, growth in mobile is making up for the shortage in retail so I don’t think we need to overplay that,” Ashley said.

“Certainly, what we’re not going to see is the kind of growth that we have had in Nevada retail, but that isn’t our core market in Nevada, as it tends to be off the strip.”

During the coronavirus lockdown, Hills found an innovative workaround for the in-person requirement by allowing locals to drive up to retail venues and carry out KYC measures from their cars.

In H1, the firm’s US business cut operating costs by 6% year-on-year to preserve cash.

CBS media partnership is “deep and tight”

On its media deal with CBS Sports, under which CBS displays Hills’ lines, odds and analysis across multiple platforms, Bengtsson said Hills had been deeply integrated into the channel’s digital and broadcast feeds.

“If you check the CBS Sports centre or highlight reels online, you will see that William Hill feeds are tightly integrated, both in the broadcasting feeds and in the online feeds,” he said.

“The voiceover in commentary refers to our front at William Hill and the odds we offer on various markets, and it’s a tie in from the fantasy follow-up they do into real money gaming.

“It’s a very deep and tight and comprehensive integration across all channels,” he added.

He dismissed any suggestion that Hills would leverage the CBS fantasy database to launch a fantasy sports offering.