UK Bookmaker Spent Millions Ahead of US Supreme Court Ruling to Legalize Sports Betting Nationwide
The United Kingdom's biggest bookmaker, William Hill, is one of many that look to capitalize on the U.S. Supreme Court decision Monday to legalize sports betting in all 50 states, though some like Utah could opt out.
Unlike most European bookmakers, William Hill already has a foothold in the U.S. market through its operation of Nevada sportsbooks.
William Hill CEO Philip Bowcock revealed in a recent conference that his company has already spent “mid-to-high single-digit” millions of dollars in anticipation of Monday’s favourable ruling in the Supreme Court.
Bowcock made it clear that US will get the highest priority if the Supreme Court does open the gates for individual states to allow sports betting.
Bowcock said: “Where we stand at the moment, we know that Delaware will go almost immediately because that is sort of quasi-type sports betting at the moment. They take parlays, which in our parlance are accumulators. So that’s quite an easy move. Clearly New Jersey will go very soon afterwards and the likes of Mississippi and West Virginia will likely go quite quickly at the moment as well.”
He added: “Each state is like a different country, so it’s going to have almost its own technology. Because the regulations will be different in each state, we’ll likely have to have a call center in each state as well for customer services. We’re looking at how that would set up.”
- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com
