William Hill New Telephone Betting Operation In Gibraltar

26th Jul 2010 07:17

LONDON (Dow Jones)--William Hill PLC (WMH.LN), a betting and gaming company, said Monday that it is to establish a new Telephone betting operation based in Gibraltar, and said the group's telephone betting subsidiary, William Hill Credit Ltd (WHCL), will close its operation in the U.K. MAIN FACTS: -William Hill Online, together with an outsourced service provider, Vertex, a global BPO and Customer Management Outsourcer, will continue to service all William Hill Telephone customers. -It is proposed that Vertex will take over the Sheffield-based call centre currently run by WHCL and that William Hill Online will also manage customers from Gibraltar. -WHCL's second call centre in Leeds will close, with all staff being offered alternative positions. -The Group has, Monday, entered into a 90-day period of consultation with those employees affected by the closure. -The group expects to implement these changes during the fourth quarter of 2010 with associated cost savings of GBP4-7 million per annum expected to commence from the start of 2011. -The cost of implementation in 2010 is expected to be GBP7 million, of which GBP5 million will be incurred as an exceptional item. -Although William Hill Online is a joint venture between William Hill PLC and Playtech Ltd, future Telephone business profits/losses will be retained by William Hill, with the exception of an annual Telephone betting support fee of GBP0.5 million payable to Playtech. -Shares closed Friday at 174.0 pence, valuing the company at GBP1.22 billion. -By Razak Musah Baba, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9275; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 26, 2010 02:17 ET (06:17 GMT)