William Hill withdraws from grey markets

UK operator William Hill is to cease taking bets from customers located in more than 50 countries due to “regulatory reasons”, according to an email seen by eGaming Review.

The mail, which was sent to affiliates of the Gibraltar-licensed company, said customers from the countries would no longer be able to register or place a bet on any of its products for reasons “beyond [its] control”.

A spokesperson from William Hill confirmed the operator would no longer take customers from a number of predominately African and Asian countries such as South Africa and Thailand but declined to make any further comment.

However, an industry source told eGR today that the decision to stop accepting bets in these countries was likely influenced by the increased regulatory oversight into the geographical scope of operators’ activities in ‘grey’ markets.

“There is more risk aversion out there now and people are looking at markets such as these more and more,” he said.

“All of these markets combined only account for a small percentage, maybe only 1%, of William Hill’s total revenues so the company probably thinks it’s not worth the risk,” he added.

The full list of countries is:

· Afghanistan

· Algeria

· Anguilla

· Bangladesh

· Belize

· Benin

· Botswana

· Burkina Faso

· Cambodia

· Cameroon

· Cape Verde Islands

· Central African Republic

· Chad

· Djibouti

· Equatorial Guinea

· Ethiopia

· Gabon

· Gambia

· Greenland

· Guinea

· Guinea-Bissau

· Haiti

· Laos

· Lesotho

· Liberia

· Madagascar

· Malawi

· Maldives

· Mali

· Mauritania

· Mongolia

· Montserrat

· Morocco

· Mozambique

· Nepal

· Netherland Antilles

· Niger

· Norfolk Island

· Rwanda

· Saint Vincent and The Grenadines

· Samoa

· Sao Tome and Principe

· Saudi Arabia

· Solomon Islands

· Somalia

· South Africa

· Surinam

· Swaziland

· Thailand

· Togo

· Tonga

· Uganda

· Uruguay

· Vanuatu

· Yemen