Birch to step down as Hills online chief
Andy Lee takes over as online MD - new roles for Jamie Hart and Jürgen Reutter.
William Hill Online CEO Henry Birch is to step down from his role after four years, the operator has announced.
He had held the role since Hills’ 2008 joint venture with Playtech was agreed, overseeing a period of online growth which has seen the operator open up a gap to many of its land-based competitors, culminating in it winning the eGaming Review Operator of the Year award last November.
Before that, Birch spent several years as CEO of Leisure &Gaming Plc and a spell as chief operating officer with Bettingcorp, having earlier served with media company Turner Broadcasting.
Birch’s contract at William Hill Online was based on a four year remuneration package based on a series of profitability targets, according to a company spokesman. Now that these have been achieved Birch and the company have agreed to amicably go their separate ways, the spokesperson confirmed. It is uncleasr what his next move will be.
Topping is understood to have spoken in depth to each member of his management team with regards to their future at the company as it looks to appropriately value and potentially exercise its option on Playtech’s 29% in its online business by the end of February next year. “The next focus is on the customer, personalisation and CRM,” the spokesperson explained, “and we needed a management team that is able to focus on that,” she added.
Hills has revealed that it will “Commence the contractual valuation process ahead of the potential exercise of its option to acquire the minority stake in William Hill Online,” meaning the call option will be exercised in Q1 2013 at the earliest.
“There can be no certainty that the option will be exercised. If not exercised, we have a further option right in two years’ time,” the company explained in a statement.
Birch’s duties will be taken on by Andy Lee, a former strategic development advisor to William Hill who rejoined the business in March this year as head of business integration and interim head of mobile, following a spell as an equity analyst with Jefferies.
Lee takes on the title of managing director, William Hill Online with immediate effect, while his own mobile responsibilities have now been assumed on a permanent basis by mobile industry veteran Jürgen Reutter, who joined Hills in August from Buongiorno, the same month that the company was taken over by Japanese corporation NTT Docomo.
Meanwhile Jamie Hart, previously sportsbook and trading director with WHO, has been appointed to the role of director of customer experience and innovation (as previously mentioned by eGR). Hart, who was part of the team behind the development of Hills’ first ever online betting website, will have particular responsibility for the development of gaming and sportsbook platforms.
The operator said in a statement: We would like to thank Henry Birch for his contribution to the business over the last four years, throughout which William Hill Online has substantially grown in both scale and profitability.
“We are delighted that Andrew Lee is taking the lead role at William Hill Online. He has the financial background and strategic insight ideally suited to this leadership role,” it continued.
CEO Ralph Topping explained that the senior management changes are aimed at “Reshaping the management team to support the business’s continued development and to increase the focus on our customers.”
Following the appointment of Lee and Paul Leyland earlier this year, Topping revealed in his personal blog: “What we have been doing is dipping into the City in our search for ‘brains and talent.'”
In a note this morning, analyst Nick Batram of Peel Hunt said: “[Birch] has done an excellent job at WHO, but William Hill does have great management breadth and depth across the business.”