William Hill: licences, history and record

William Hill is a British bookmaker that dates itself to 1934. Caesars Entertainment bought it in 2021 and sold its European business to 888 Holdings, now evoke plc, in 2022. The Gambling Commission lists two William Hill licensees and has announced penalty packages of £6.2m in 2018 and £19.2m in 2023.

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Pros and cons

At a glance

Founded

1934 (Wikipedia, secondary); Companies House dates William Hill Organization Limited to 1933Sources: Wikipedia; Companies House

Shop licensee in Great Britain

William Hill Organization Limited, account 2752, 1,250 premisesSource: Gambling Commission

Online licensee in Great Britain

WHG (International) Limited, account 39225, Gibraltar addressSource: Gambling Commission

Owner

evoke plc, formerly 888 Holdings, since the sale of 1 July 2022Sources: U.S. SEC (Caesars Entertainment, Inc.); evoke plc

Other licences read

Gibraltar (numbers 034 and 042) and Malta (MGA/CRP/121/2006-05), as the operator's terms state themSources: William Hill; William Hill

Not accepted

Ontario, Alberta and South Africa are on its denied listSources: William Hill; iGaming Ontario

Regulator actions found

Commission: £6.2m (2018), £19.2m (2023), £82,687 (2025)Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission

Last read

3 October 2026Source: Gambling Commission

Company history

According to Wikipedia, William Hill founded the bookmaker in 1934 and it was the largest in the world by the 1960s. In December 1966 it bought Jack Swift's betting business, with 18 shops mostly in London's West End, for £825,000.Source: Wikipedia

Grand Metropolitan bought it in 1988 and Brent Walker in 1989. Nomura led a £700m buy-out in 1997, and Cinven and CVC bought the company for £825m in 1999 after a flotation was abandoned. It listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2002 and bought 624 Stanley Leisure shops for £504m in 2005.Source: Wikipedia

The online business grew through a 2008 partnership with Playtech, which William Hill ended in 2013 by paying £424 million for full control. Wikipedia adds that it bought Mr Green for £242 million in 2019. It announced 700 shop closures in 2019 and 119 more in 2020.Source: Wikipedia

Caesars Entertainment completed its £2.9 billion acquisition of William Hill PLC on 22 April 2021. It agreed to sell William Hill International to 888 Holdings for about £2.2 billion, cut on 7 April 2022 to an enterprise value of about £2.0 billion, and the sale completed on 1 July 2022.Source: U.S. SEC (Caesars Entertainment, Inc.)

The evoke plc annual report for 2025 gives group revenue of £1,781.9m, including £674m from UK and Ireland online and £501m from UK retail. It says evoke closed 68 shops in the last quarter of 2025 and announced about 200 more in March 2026.Source: evoke plc

Companies House lists William Hill Organization Limited, number 00278208, as incorporated on 26 July 1933, a year before Wikipedia's founding date. Its UK terms say the contracting company is WHG (International) Limited, registered in Gibraltar with number 99191 and part of evoke plc.Sources: Companies House; William Hill

1. 1934Founded

   William Hill founds the bookmaker (Wikipedia).

   Source: Wikipedia
2. 22 April 2021Caesars completes its purchase

   Caesars Entertainment completes the £2.9 billion acquisition of William Hill PLC.

   Source: U.S. SEC (Caesars Entertainment, Inc.)
3. 1 July 2022European business sold

   Caesars completes the sale of William Hill International to 888 Holdings.

   Source: U.S. SEC (Caesars Entertainment, Inc.)
4. December 2024Exit from 13 countries

   William Hill announces it will cease operations in 13 countries, among them Kenya and Nigeria (Wikipedia).

   Source: Wikipedia

Licences it holds

Where you can and cannot use it

Great Britain: yes, under the two Commission licences above. The UK terms limit accounts to residents of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Gibraltar or Jersey, and separate terms cover international customers and Ireland.Sources: William Hill; William Hill

The help centre has a denied list of countries where it will not open accounts. It includes South Africa, Ontario, Alberta, Australia, the United States, the Netherlands and Poland. The iGaming Ontario directory has no William Hill entry, which agrees.Sources: William Hill; iGaming Ontario

A restricted list covers partial access: Germany's products are no longer available, Italy and Spain are sent to local sites, and New Zealand lost sports betting from 13 August 2025.Source: William Hill

If it closes a market, the page says players can log in for a period to withdraw, pending bets are honoured where regulation allows, and unused bonuses are lost. Its own website did not open from our location, so we read its help centre.Source: William Hill

Payments and withdrawals

The help page on deposit and withdrawal options lists debit cards with a £5 minimum. It gives a £99,000 deposit maximum and withdrawal maximums of £33,000 for Mastercard and Visa Debit and £40,000 for Maestro, and says William Hill charges no card fees.Source: William Hill

Deposits are immediate, Visa Direct withdrawals take about four hours and other cards usually one to three working days. The page does not say whether the deposit maximum applies in the UK.Source: William Hill

Withdrawals return to a payment method already on the account. A customer with one method gets the money back there, or by bank transfer if it cannot take withdrawals. With several methods, the system tries the one with the highest net deposit. Its example says a customer who deposited £100 by Visa Debit and £50 by Skrill must send £100 to the card before taking more than £50 to Skrill.Sources: William Hill; William Hill

Visa Direct covers amounts up to 10,000, and larger withdrawals use the older route and can take up to three days.Sources: William Hill; William Hill

A withdrawal can trigger an identity request, most often when the customer withdraws to a different method or uses a card not in their name. Birth certificates, payslips and phone bills are not accepted as proof.Source: William Hill

UK customers cannot reverse a withdrawal. The help centre dates this to 30 June 2020 and ties it to the shorter processing time that supports Visa Direct. Non-UK customers can reverse a withdrawal while it still shows as pending.Sources: William Hill; William Hill

Limits and safer-gambling tools

Deposit limits can be daily, weekly or monthly. The help page says a gross limit option applies from 22 September 2026 alongside the net limit. A gross limit counts deposits only, so after a £50 deposit against a £100 limit, £50 remains. A net limit adds withdrawals back, so £100 would remain.Source: William Hill

The new periods follow the calendar: daily limits reset at 00:00, weekly limits run Monday to Sunday and monthly limits reset on the first. Decreases apply at once, while increases wait 24 hours and then need confirmation.Sources: William Hill; William Hill

A time out lasts up to 42 days for UK customers. Self-exclusion runs from six months to five years and cannot be reversed during that period. From 20 April 2023, a new UK self-exclusion extends to related accounts with 888casino, 888poker, 888sport, 777.com, William Hill and Mr Green.Sources: William Hill; William Hill

The UK terms say William Hill is registered with GAMSTOP, which offers exclusion for six months, one year or five years. It also takes part in GamProtect, which can lead to closure of a high-risk customer's account.Sources: William Hill; William Hill

UK customers must hold a gaming session time reminder of at most one hour for Vegas, games, casino and bingo. The Commission's own deposit-limit rules are changing too, and we did not read how William Hill has applied them.Sources: William Hill; Gambling Commission

Drawbacks

The enforcement record is the main drawback. The 2023 announcement lists a customer who spent £23,000 in 20 minutes on a new account without checks, and a £100,000 bet placed against a £70,000 credit limit.Source: Gambling Commission

A further failing in the same announcement let 331 customers gamble with WHG (International) despite self-excluding with Mr Green. In 2025 the Commission fined WHG (International) £82,687 for not applying a rule on customers holding accounts with group companies.Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission

The terms give the operator wide rights. It may void bets and withhold winnings after an error or malfunction, even when the problem is not obvious. Maximum winnings limits apply whatever the stake, and an account inactive for 13 months is charged £3 a month.Source: William Hill

Customer money is protected at the Commission's medium level: funds sit in a designated client account on trust, but the terms say there is no absolute guarantee of repayment on insolvency.Source: William Hill

The parent is a further risk. evoke's 2025 report shows net debt of £1,862.7m, large impairments and a retail estate being cut, and on 20 April 2026 it said it was in talks with Bally's Intralot about an offer at 50p a share.Source: evoke plc

How it compares

Both are long-established British bookmakers with a shop estate and an online business. Ladbrokes' register page lists 2,680 premises against 1,250 on William Hill's.Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission

The online structures differ. Ladbrokes' online business sits with LC International, which carries 14 active trading names, while WHG (International) carries one.Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission; Gibraltar Gambling Division; iGaming Ontario

The records differ in size. The Commission's 2022 announcement was £17m for Entain, set against £19.2m for three William Hill group businesses in 2023. Entain also carries a £585 million deferred prosecution agreement, which has no William Hill equivalent in the sources we read. Both brands return withdrawals to the deposit method first.Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission; Crown Prosecution Service; Ladbrokes; William Hill

Read the Ladbrokes review for the other side of the comparison.

If something goes wrong

For a UK account, the steps are customer service first, then a second opinion from the company, which acknowledges within 24 hours and aims to resolve within eight weeks. After that the customer can go to IBAS, the Independent Betting Adjudication Service, free of charge.Sources: William Hill; William Hill

Customers outside the UK follow the same first steps, with a stated aim of ten days, or 14 for Ireland. They can then go to eCOGRA at no cost, except in Ireland.Sources: William Hill; William Hill

The Commission's page for William Hill Organization Limited shows no regulatory actions, although its 2023 announcement names that company. We report both as read and do not reconcile them.Sources: Gambling Commission; Gambling Commission

Regulatory record

1. 20 February 2018UK Gambling Commission: £6.2m

   William Hill agreed a package of at least £6.2m: more than £5m for breaching rules and £1.2m of earnings tied to ten customers. The Commission found senior management failed to keep enough staff to make its anti-money-laundering and social responsibility processes effective between November 2014 and August 2016.

   Source: Gambling Commission
2. 28 March 2023UK Gambling Commission: £19.2m

   Three William Hill group businesses agreed to pay £19.2m: WHG (International) £12.5m, Mr Green £3.7m and William Hill Organization £3m. The Commission called it the largest enforcement payment in its history at that date.

   Source: Gambling Commission
3. 7 August 2025UK Gambling Commission: £82,687

   The Commission fined WHG (International) after a key event submission outside a licence review showed it had failed to comply with paragraph 3 of social responsibility code provision 3.9.1, on customers holding accounts with group companies.

   Source: Gambling Commission

What we could not check

• William Hill's own website, odds, cash-out rules, offers and bonus terms (the site would not open for us).
• Whether the debit-card limits and other help-centre figures are current; several help pages carry no date.
• Whether the Malta licence is current on the Malta Gaming Authority's register, which we did not open.
• Gibraltar licence numbers 034 and 042, which we read only in the operator's terms.
• Which William Hill entity serves each country beyond what the terms state.