William Hill Restores Order Following Staff Walkout - 10-27-11

October 27 - William Hill has announced that normal business activity has resumed at the Tel Aviv branch of William Hill Online, following a staff walkout last week.

Seven senior managers have been dismissed following the strike which involved around 180 staff at the marketing offices of the company in Israel. Walkouts of a smaller nature also occurred in the customer service and back office centers in Sofia, Bulgaria and Manila in the Philippines.

The UK gaming giant issued a statement saying, "Discussions in Tel Aviv have resulted in a resumption of normal business activity in both Tel Aviv and Bulgaria." They also added that the situation in Manila was settled.

The reasons for the strike were not revealed by William Hill. However, an individual close to the situation said that employees in Tel Aviv were concerned that their jobs would be relocated to Gibraltar to where the company operates its consumer-facing websites from. As a result, the Chief Marketing Officer for the company, Eyal Sanoff, resigned last week.

There are rumors that senior managers were planning to set up a rival company, but the deal that was reached between them and William Hill involved a non-compete clause, which they were required to sign to be eligible for a payoff of an undisclosed amount, rumored to be in the region of £2 million.

William Hill Committed to Remain in Israel

William Hill has denied that it intends to relocate its operations from Israel to Gibraltar, saying it is committed to maintaining its sales and marketing operations in the Middle Eastern country.

At the beginning of 2013, William Hill has will have the chance to buy out the 29 percent stake which online gambling software firm Playtech currently has in its online division.

The operation in Tel Aviv and Bulgaria was originally started by Eyal Sanoff and Playtech founder, Teddy Sagi, which ultimately evolved into a joint venture with Will Hill called William Hill Online. Before then, William Hill had been struggling with its in-house software and the joint venture revived its online gaming operation.

Simon French, an analyst at Panmure Gordon stated, "I think William Hill will feel more comfortable now as they have more control. But I think it makes more sense to exercise its option in 2013 to gain full control of WHO [William Hill Online]."

Mor Weizer, CEO of Playtech commented on the business and said that it "can now continue to move forward."

William Hill obtained a ruling against Playtech in February from selling its stake in William Hill Online to a competitor.