$20 Million Sale By William Hill

Published: Monday, December 12, 2005 Online-Casinos.com

$20 MILLION OFFICE SALE BY WILLIAM HILL

UK gambling giant William Hill sells off another 48 shops

UK bookie firm William Hill agreed this week to sell 48 of its offices to the Wigan-based Tote group for GBP 20 million.

The deal is expected to be completed within the next two weeks and comes after William Hill was told by the Office of Fair Trading to offload around 50 of the betting offices it acquired earlier this year from the retail arm of Stanley Leisure.

The deal follows the sale of 28 other sites to the Tote in September as part of William Hill's own attempts to address regulatory concerns.

Tote's betting office estate now exceeds 500 offices. The firm also has a presence on each of the 59 racecourses in Britain, as well as internet and telephone betting operations.

In May, William Hill paid GBP 504 million for 624 Stanley shops in a deal that left it equal with Ladbrokes as the industry's biggest player.

In July, following the first sale of 28 sites to the Tote, William Hill said the disposal to its state-owned rival reduced the impact of the Stanley acquisition on local competition. But it expressed disappointment at the Office of Fair Trading's ruling a month later to sell around 50 more.