William Hill withdraws from Portugal and Estonia
Operator tells affiliates it will no longer accept business from players within the two countries from this Sunday
William Hill will withdraw from Portugal and Estonia by the end of the week due to “recent regulatory developments”, however the operator has left the door open to a possible return.
The operator, which prefers to keep its unregulated market exposure to a minimum, emailed affiliates earlier this week to inform them of the decision and confirmed to eGaming Review that none of its products would be available within the countries’ borders from Sunday 28 June.
Affiliates have been asked to remove all marketing materials from their websites, including banners and text links, which relate to Estonian and Portuguese bettors.
The withdrawal from Portugal will come just one day ahead of the planned release of the country’s draft online gambling regulation while Estonia’s framework has been live since 2010.
Portugal’s licensing regime has faced criticism from industry, particularly over plans to tax sports betting operators up to 16% on turnover, leading one gaming exec to predict a “very large” black market.
However, William Hill hinted that it may yet return to the Portuguese market, telling affiliates in the country that it was “confident that we will have the opportunity to work together in the future”.
Last year William Hill withdrew from more than 50 markets including South Africa and Thailand for similar regulatory reasons, while in November the operator ordered affiliates in the Netherlands to cease marketing activity ahead of a soon-to-be-launched regulated market.