William Hill loses Australian Open courtside presence
Operator loses on-court signage for next month’s Grand Slam tournament in the wake of match-fixing allegations unconnected to Hills
William Hill will no longer have courtside brand exposure at the Australian Open after Tennis Australia bowed to pressure to end the sponsorship amid recent match-fixing scandals.
The London-listed operator became the first gambling brand to sponsor the Grand Slam tennis tournament earlier this year but the deal immediately faced criticism in light of the match-fixing allegations.
One of the world’s leading tennis players, Novak Djokovic, described Tennis Australia’s decision at the time as “borderline”, although the operator was never implicated in any investigation.
In a statement to EGR Intel this morning, a William Hill Australia spokesperson said the firm respected the decision of the sporting body to drop its on-court signage.
“We respect, above anything, the integrity of the sport of tennis and are happy to act in accordance with Tennis Australia and the sport in general,” the spokesperson said.
The loss of brand exposure at next month’s Australian Open will be a blow to William Hill after the bookmaker reported a marked increase in turnover during the tournament earlier this year.
The bookmaker reported a 20,000 increase in bets on day one of the tournament, an 80% rise in turnover, and a 297% hike in in-play wagers compared to day one in 2015.
Tennis Australia today announced a range of additional measures to boost integrity of the sport, including Product Fee and Integrity Agreements with licensed Australian bookmakers to ensure mandatory reporting of all suspicious betting alerts.
It also extended the block on access to all gambling websites via Tennis Australia public WiFi to include all tournaments.