4th Jul 2014 08:53
LONDON (Alliance News) - William Hill PLC Friday said its has appointed James Henderson as the bookmaker's new chief executive officer to drive the business both internationally and online, replacing Ralph Topping, who is stepping down at the end of July after more than four decades at the company.
Incoming CEO Henderson, who has been with the company for 29 years after starting out at the company as a trainee manager, is currently William Hill's group director of operations, overseeing the UK retail business, online, and William Hill in Australia and the US. Henderson will take over as CEO on August 1, with a base salary of GBP550,000 a year.
Topping, who has been with the group for 44 years, has led the company as chief executive for the past six years, and has overseen the establishment of William Hill in the US and Australia, and built the company's growing online business.
"James is the best person to sustain the momentum achieved by Topping, and drive the online operations and business," Chairman Gareth Davis told journalists in a call Friday.
The company had been looking at both external and internal candidates, and William Hill's decision to appoint from within to drive the business forward, comes at a challenging time for the UK gambling sector, as the government has tightened controls on betting shops and raised duty on high-stake gambling machines to 25% from 20%, a hike effective from March next year. Point-of-consumption tax is also being introduced at the end of this year.
"Whilst we face challenges as an industry, there are also plenty of opportunities to keep strengthening William Hill by further diversifying our revenues and continuing to build a responsible, sustainable business," said CEO Designate Henderson in the company's pre-market statement Friday.
"Over the last two or three years we have been successfully driving online revenues, so there are a number of headwinds, but there are a number of opportunities too," Henderson later added in the call with journalists.
The FTSE 100 bookmaker said it plans to drive the business forward online and abroad, having established a good presence in Australia, the US and continental Europe.
"More international growth in very much the central part of our strategy... as is product innovation," Chairman Davis said.
Back in April, the company announced plans to shut 109 loss-making betting shops before the end of the year, in a bid to maintain profits going forward in response to the UK's government tax hike on fixed-odd betting machines.
William Hill shares were up 1.7% at 341.60 pence Friday morning, amongst the biggest gainers on the FTSE 250. William Hill was relegated from the FTSE 100 in June.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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