Australia Sports Betting » William Hill Review

William Hill Review

Introduction

The following is an in-depth review of the betting agency William Hill. This review covers the history, features, interface, sports & racing markets, upsides and downsides of the service.

This review is part of our comprehensive Bookmaker Reviews section. The Betting Agencies page provides information and reviews for other sports betting agencies that are suitable for Australians. The following details are updated periodically to keep them up to date.

History, Location and Licence

William Hill was founded in 1934 and has a colourful history full of financial ups and downs.¹ It commenced offering Internet betting in 1998, and today it claims to be Europe’s leading gaming and sports betting business, taking in more than £16bn in stakes in 2010. The company has around 2,300 betting shops and employs over 15,000 people. William Hill PLC is based in London and is listed on the London Stock exchange. The William Hill service is operated by WHG (International) Limited and WHG Trading Limited. Both companies are registered in Gibraltar and are regulated and licensed by the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority.²

William Hill offers a huge array of betting options including sports, virtual sports, poker, games, casino, skill, bingo, financial markets and lotteries. The company boasts an extensive sports betting line up. The betting selection for football fixtures in particular is astounding. For example there are typically 101 markets available for English Championship fixtures (the division below the English Premier League). Another strength of William Hill from an Australian perspective is that it supports Australian dollar accounts.

Services and Features

New member offers	New members can receive a £/€25 free bet if you open an account using the promo code F25. Note that free bets expire after 7 days unless otherwise stated.
Deposit options	Credit card (Visa & MasterCard), UK debit cards, bank transfer, personal cheque, Quick Cash, Neteller, UK Postal Orders, Paypal (for selected European countries only), Moneybookers, POLi, Click2Pay, Clickandbuy, Paysafecard, WebMoney, Przelewy24, Sofortüberweisung, Giropay, Nordea, Abaqoos, iDEAL, Moneta.ru, INSTADEBIT, Euteller, eKonto, Boleto Bancario, eWire (DK), Eps, Multibanco, Linea Abierta, BankLink, Teleingreso, Gluepay, CashU, Mistercash, UseMyBank
Withdrawal options	Visa Credit card, Mastercard (for UK cards only), UK debit cards, bank transfer, personal cheque, Quick Cash, Neteller, Paypal (for selected European countries only), Moneybookers, Click2Pay
Transaction fees	None, however your bank may charge a fee if you make a credit card deposit using an Australian credit card.
Currencies	AUD, CAD, CHF, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, JPY, SEK, SGD, USD
Languages	English, Český, Српски, Dansk, Deutsch, Español, Ελληνικά, Français, Magyar, Nederlands, Norsk, Österreich, Polski, Português, Pусский, Română, Slovenski, Suomi, Svenska, Türkçe, 简体中文, 繁體中文, 日本語
Odds formats	American, Decimal, Fractional
Minimum deposit	£5-£25 (or the equivalent in your account currency) depending on the deposit method
Minimum bet	3p for singles and 1p for multiple bets, or the equivalent in your account currency
Maximum payout	Maximum winnings vary from one sports market to another. Limits range from £10,000 to £2 Million.
Deposit turnover requirements	None that we’re aware of
Bonus credit turnover requirements	None that we’re aware of
Bookmaker margin	We do not yet have full survey data, but margins appear to be above average for Australian sports and below average for American sports.
Credit facilities	None that we’re aware of
Forbidden Jurisdictions	Bulgaria, Cuba, France, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Hong Kong, Iran, Israel, Italy, Libya, Martinique, Myanmar (Burma), North Korea, Philippines, Réunion, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, and the USA. Residents of the following countries may open an account, however access to certain products or services is restricted: Malta (no casino), Cyprus (no poker, no casino), Estonia (no poker, no casino).
Mobile version of the website?	Yes
Identity checks	“In a small number of cases the checks that we carry out are not able to verify the age of new account holders. If this applies to your account we would need to ask for further information from you to confirm you are at least 18 years old. The simplest and quickest way we can verify you are over 18 years old would be to contact our Verification team who will be happy to complete the necessary checks with you over the telephone. Alternatively, you could provide us with a suitable document to prove your date of birth by fax or email. We will accept any of the following documents: Birth Certificate, Driving Licence, Passport, Signed Credit Agreement.” Australians can expect to be requested to go through this procedure, especially if you deposit funds by credit card.
Dormant account fees	None

Betting Interface and Website Layout

The William Hill sports betting interface is feature packed, as you would expect for a large bookmaker. One aspect that stands out is the location of the sports navigation menu. Most bookmakers place the menu of available sports down the left hand side of the website. William Hill instead displays the sports at the top of the page in a table. This provides more space for the odds and betting slip, but the arrangement is unusual. The most popular sports are featured in the top row in order of popularity, while the rest of the sports are displayed alphabetically. This takes some time to get used to, and new members will find it a bit slower to find sports than with the more familiar vertical panel used on other websites.

The odds display and betting slip are displayed below the list of sports. The odds panel is fairly intuitive. Odds are displayed next to each selection which can be clicked on to add the item to the betting slip. Selections that are already in your bet slip are highlighted in blue in the odds display. If additional options are available for a particular event, a link titled “+ xx bets” is displayed to the right of the market, indicating xx more betting markets are available. When you click on the link these items are then displayed.

The betting slip is excellent. As you type in stake amounts the estimated returns and total stake are automatically calculated. If more than one eligible bet is added to the slip an ‘Accumulators / Multiples’ box is displayed, which showcases all possible multi bet options. Again, as you type in a multi bet stake amount the estimated returns and total stake are automatically displayed, which is incredibly handy for exotic multiple bets.

William Hill sports display

Sports navigation

William Hill odds display

Odds display

William Hill bet slip

Betting slip

Sports Markets

William Hill offers an extensive sports betting line up. While the emphasis is on European sports, popular Australian leagues such as AFL and NRL are catered for, but with not the same depth of markets as you would get with leading Australian bookmakers.

Football is the most heavily catered for market, with over 100 betting options for many fixtures. Comprehensive football statistics are available for most teams.

All of the other major sports are present. Formula 1, UFC, golf, GAA football & hurling, snooker, volleyball and TV reality shows are a few examples of other markets that are catered for. William Hill is certainly adequate for the needs of most punters.

Horse Racing

William Hill provides horse racing markets for the UK and Ireland racecourses, as well as for selected South African, US and Australian events. The race betting terminology is a bit different to that used in Australia. Even common terms like “Runner” have slightly different definitions. For example, in Britain a Runner must finish within the first two places (in a 5-7 runner race), three places (8-15 runners and non-handicaps with 16+ runners) or four places (handicaps with 16+ runners).³

Live Sports Betting

According to the Interactive Gambling Act, bookmakers aren’t supposed to offer live online betting to Australians, but international services either ignore or aren’t aware of this law, and continue to offer live betting services to Australians. Note that adherence to the Act is the responsibility of gambling operators and not individual Australians. It is not an offence for Australian residents to bet live “in-play” online.⁴

Live sports betting can be a lot of fun. The margins are higher due to the bookmaker risk involved, but there’s a lot of value to be found for the astute punter. Not only does it provide the excitement of having to make quick decisions, but live betting enables you to place counter bets if things aren’t going your way. View our guide to live sports betting.

The live betting interface at William Hill is very much in keeping with standard pre-game betting. One notable difference is that the odds will flash with up or down arrows as they change while events unfold.

Clicking on a specific event will provide a large scoreboard to accompany the odds. William Hill also offers a live scores & results section of the website that enables you to follow all live events.

William Hill live odds display

Live odds display

William Hill live market

Live scores

William Hill live scores

Live scores & results

Upsides

Incredibly low minimum bet levels
Strong sports betting selection
Extensive range of deposit and withdrawal methods, including POLi ⁵
Live online betting services
Excellent help section with a search feature
‘My Favourites’ is an excellent feature for keeping track of matches you wish to follow. It comes in especially handy on weekends when there are many simultaneous sporting events.
To help punters navigate their way around the extensive array of betting options, William Hill offers a search feature to quickly find betting options.

Downsides

Website can be slow at times for Australian users
Australian banks will likely charge a fee if you use a credit card to make a deposit
Site maintenance typically takes place in the mid-afternoon AEST
The bookmaker odds aren’t as competitive as local services for Australian sports
User interface is not as beginner friendly as some competitors

Bottom Line

As one of the largest bookmakers around, it is of no surprise that William Hill offers a massive range of sports betting markets. While the focus of this review is on the sports offerings, users can also access casino, skill, bingo, poker and numerous other gambling options. The site even features casino games with live dealers! One of the biggest draw cards from an Australian perspective is the provision of live online betting. Keen punters can also take advantage of the breadth of European sporting markets that are not catered to by Australian agencies. Football punters in particular should take a close look at this service. If you primarily bet on Australian sports, however, you are better off with a local bookmaker. William Hill is a feature packed service that would make a great compliment to an Australian bookmaker membership.

William Hill live dealer