Hills drops Spanish-facing Miapuesta brand
UK operator rolls its recently acquired Spanish business into the William Hill brand
William Hill is dropping the Spanish-facing Miapuesta brand it acquired earlier this year in favour of bringing it under William Hill branding.
The UK operator is expected to migrate Miapuesta’s customer database to the main William Hill platform, although it is unknown how long this will take due to regulatory difficulties in transferring customers’ accounts.
Customers using the miapuesta.es site are currently being redirected to sign up to William Hill with a 100 deposit and 10 free bet offer.
A source in Spain told eGR this morning that incorporating the Miapuesta business into the William Hill brand would be a smart move for the operator as it looks to increase its market share in the country.
“It is something that will favour William Hill to [enable it to] gather a major share in the online market. Probably when and if they finally do, it will become the second major player in the sports betting market after bet365,” the source said.
The decision appears in contrast to its Australian strategy which is set to see the recently acquired Sportingbet and Centrebet brands remain separate to the William Hill brand despite earlier reports suggesting the entire Australian operation would fall under the group umbrella.
William Hill completed its acquisition of Miapuesta in September following the operator’s joint-buyout of Sportingbet for £454m earlier this year with GVC Holdings. Hills took a call option on Sportingbet’s Spanish-facing business which could be exercised after a six-month period.
Hills effectively doubled the size of its Spanish business a result of the deal, however it still finds itself way behind market leaders bet365 which dominates with around a 50% market share.
According to the Spanish gambling regulators’ Q2 figures, Miapuesta and William Hill held a 10% and 11% share of the country’s online sports betting market respectively.
William Hill was unavailable to comment at the time of writing.