William Hill chair: Henderson sacking a unanimous decision

William Hill’s underperforming digital arm left board members with little option but to unanimously back the sacking of chief executive James Henderson earlier this week, the operator’s chairman Gareth Davies (pictured) has said.

Speaking to EGR following the departure of Henderson yesterday, Davies revealed the board had met to discuss a change at the top last Friday (15 July) with Henderson first notified on Monday.

“I saw James on Monday and the board met very late last week,” Davies said. “We ratified the decision last night [Wednesday] and announced today [Thursday] so it’s all pretty recent.”

Asked whether the sacking of Henderson had been put to a vote, Davies said: “We didn’t need to vote – it was a unanimously held view so there are no dissenters.”

According to Davies, the firm’s underperforming Online division ultimately meant Henderson, who had been at Hills for more than 30 years, the final two as CEO, had to go.

“The underlying reason [for Henderson’s departure] is that we have been used to pretty strong compound growth rates in our Online business then in the middle of last year we hit a bit of a rock face and started losing ground and the growth rates came right down and we started losing market share,” Davies explained.

“The problem was exacerbated by the Project Trafalgar technology change in the autumn last year and then problems with self-exclusions and a bad Cheltenham, which led to a profit warning.

“Our share price has also fallen around 33% over the last few months so all those things coming together created something of a storm.

“At the end of the day we just have to face the fact that gambling businesses now are largely rated on their online performance and capability rather than the overall business,” he added.

CFO Philip Bowcock has taken on the CEO role on an interim basis while a long-term replacement is both found and installed, a process which Davies said could take up to a year.

The chairman said having gambling and gaming experience wouldn’t be the “be all and end all” when recruiting a successor but appeared to suggest the firm may already have a particular candidate in mind.

“We are looking for a proven CEO with PLC or international equivalent experience, someone who is very digitally capable and ideally someone with international growth experience and of breaking into new markets,” Davies said.

“These days, people are held to their notice periods more than ever so it could be 12 months before we have someone in position.

“That doesn’t mean we won’t announce someone earlier but it is very interesting that Breon Corcoran’s appointment, when he left Paddys to join Betfair, was announced 10 months before he took up the position.

“So when our announcement will be – obviously we can’t say at the moment but it could be a few months or a few weeks, but it could be up to a year before we have the person in position,” he added.

Davies said the firm remained on track to post operating profit of ?260-280m for 2016 and that a spike in William Hill’s share price reflected confidence in the firm’s decision to part with Henderson.

William Hill’s share price closed at 274p on Wednesday and stood at 299p at the time of writing.