William Hill Plc Expands in The US by Partnering With CBS Sports Digital

In another major step forward for William Hill’s expansion in the United States, the company has become the official sports betting provider to CBS.

The UK bookmaker, William Hill Plc (LON:WMH) would be the official Sports Book & Wagering Data Provider of the US TV network, CBS Sports Digital as announced in their exclusive partnership. This partnership shall fuel leadership of CBS Sports by providing access to Sports Betting Content. In addition, William Hill’s reach will be extended to millions of fantasy players and sports fans. William Hill is a market leader with an experienced US team and a bespoke technology platform.

Incepted in 1934, the UK bookmaker, William Hill Plc established its presence in Las Vegas, the United States in 2012. As the company has a varied product offering across the industry, sports betting, the company grew to become America’s leading sportsbook operator with operations in ten states.

William Hill Plc is a company that engages in the provision of Gambling activities. The group has a network of more than two thousand licensed betting offices across the United Kingdom. It is providing customers with over more than a million betting chances every week. Other than online platforms, the company is having the Retail division as well, which is the largest division and a major contributor to the company’s net revenue. The group’s divisions include the likes of Retail business, Online activities as well as geographical divisions like the United States of America, Australia and other countries.

This deal between the two entities shall reinforce fan engagement, as this will lead to a unique combination of product, technology, sports betting, and media on a single platform. The initial integrations will begin very soon on digital platforms of CBS Sports with a fantasy football season to follow soon.

This partnership allows for the delivering specific and classified content by utilising CBS Sports Digital’s wide array of platforms and which shall bolster its leadership in the sports betting space. The US TV network shall leverage on William Hill sportsbooks across the country to deliver deeper insights and programming and thereby to increase sports bettors and fans engagement. William Hill’s odds, experts and more than 140 sportsbooks shall be utilised by CBS Sports to bolster its current digital offerings

On the same time, William Hill shall exercise its exclusive rights on CBS Sports Digital’s broad range of digital properties to promote its brand. CBS Sports Fantasy platform has a higher customer acquisition ratio.

With increased exposure, CBS shall deliver sports wagering content on multiple platforms and extend its leadership. The FTSE 250 quoted bookmaker shall reap benefits from the deep reach of the market-leading betting platform of CBS Sports Digital. Both the entities have a longstanding history of connecting fans directly to the biggest events with most iconic moments in sports and are now well- positioned to tap into the explosive growth of this segment of the legal sports betting fans & industry in the United States, as they have strong brand equity, strong distribution network and required expertise.

William Hill brand across America shall expand quickly and efficiently by leveraging upon one of the largest fantasy sports databases and platforms provider in the world, CBS Sports Digital’s assets, including mass-reach digital content products. The FTSE 250 listed bookmaker has now access to exclusive media, branding and promotional rights across the leading digital sports properties of CBS.

William Hill PLC recently issued a trading update for the Financial year 2019 period ended 31^st December 2019. Due to favourable sporting results throughout the 52-week period, the Group’s full-year adjusted operating profit is expected to be ahead of market and management expectations, in the range of £143 million to £148 million, for the fiscal year 2019.

Having gone through the transformation period, the company’s Retail business generated an operating profit above the guidance of £50-£70 million; as in December, the company got favourable sporting results which were more as compared with the long-term gross win margin range. The performance of the Gaming segment was ahead of expectations. For the third consecutive quarter, Online UK grew in line with the market.

Led by Mr Green, the company witnessed a strong performance in gaming. During the final quarter, driven by wagering growth and disciplined investment, the US business continued to generate strong growth. For the US business, the company is expected to breakeven in 2019. The company promotes responsible gambling. The company is expected to release its results in late February 2020.

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Business overview: CBS Sports Digital

CBS Sports Digital has more than 80 million users per month across its website and applications and is the second-largest sports property in the United States. The company has millions of followers on social media platforms. The Group has specialised subscription platform like SportsLine, used for making game predictions and bets that witnessed a strong surge in subscriber base in recent years. The company’s offering includes 24/7 streaming network CBS Sports HQ, CBSSports.com, CBS Sports apps, CBS Sports Fantasy, and 247Sports.

William Hill Plc -Stock Price Performance

Daily Chart as at Feb-11-20, before the market close (Source: Thomson Reuters)

On 11th February 2020, at the time of writing (before market close, GMT 11:43 AM), William Hill Plc shares were trading at GBX 187.38, up by 5.00 per cent against its previous day closing price. Stock's 52 weeks High and Low is GBX 206.80 /GBX 128.41. At the time of writing, the share was trading 9.39% lower than its 52w High and 45.92% higher than its 52w low. Stock’s average traded volume for 5 days was 2,515,448.00: 30 days - 2,436,539.63 and 90 days - 2,844,232.57. The average traded volume for 5 days was up by 3.24% as compared to 30 days average traded volume. The company’s stock beta was 0.78, reflecting lower volatility as compared to the benchmark index. The outstanding market capitalisation was around £1.56 billion along with a dividend yield of 5.83%.