William Hill Review

William Hill were founded back in 1934, and has proven to be one of the most reliable bookmakers in the UK. They have over 16,000 employees across nine countries, and are looking to branch out into more areas on the globe. Hills has had a tumultuous ownership history, including its owners going bankrupt in the late 1990s, varying fortunes on the stock market and forays into owning greyhound tracks. William Hill also bought out StanleyBet in 2005 and in the last few years has looked to branch out internationally, making moves into India, the United States and Australia, but their Canadian ventures ended in May 2016. As of 2016, they had 2.6 million active digital users, one of the highest visiting websites in the world of the bookmaker. They also have the largest land-based bookmakers in the UK, totalling at the time of writing 2,375.

Deposit & Withdrawals

Simply, effective and pretty much bang on, one of William Hill’s strengths is their deposit and withdrawal system. There are a lot of different methods one could use with payment at William Hill, from the standard Debit/Credit card to Bank Wire and Entropay. Fees can apply for certain options, but the main areas of choice are fee free.

Customer Service

Another of their strong points come in their customer service, but mainly through their live chat. Telephone calls can be a different matter at hand, but should be betting online at any time, William Hill’s live chat can be the answer to all your 3am needs. Their FAQ is just as useful if you wish to answer the question yourself, but should you need to speak with an advisor, they can do so in around 20 languages, including English, Italian, Japanese or ever Slovak.

License Information

For customers in the UK, Betfred licensed and regulated by the Gambling Commission.

William Hill offer fractional, decimal and american odds formats.

Betting limits

• Horse Racing: Race winner singles and Multiples inc.Ante post – £1,000,000
• Football: 90 Minutes, to Qualify, To win the League, To win the Cup – £2,000,000

Please note that William Hill have betting and payout limits across all sports and bet types. For exact information on limits for a particular bet type for a particular sport please check the William Hill T&C’s.

Types of bets

William Hill offer a broad range of sporting events for the everyday better, and in 2016 had over 60,000 football matches to be bet on. Their max bet is a solid £10,000, one of the higher amount than their competitors. Their odds are competitive, though can be a little underwhelming at times, especially in some of the larger markets. Though their selection of bets is actually quite extensive, with only the navigation of the site a hindrance in this regard.

Sport coverage

William Hill cover a vast range of sport with more than 30 in total. The main sports they focus on are Horse Racing, Football, Greyhound Racing, Tennis and Cricket.

In-play experience

In-play betting at William Hill is now very easy to use with an excellent “live” interface for all types of bets.

Live streaming

Their live streaming is one of the best in the business, but can be sluggish when having to buffer on a consistent basis, but this may be down to the computer at hand. Despite this, their live-betting is actually very good, and you’d be hard pressed to find something you wish to bet on without their being a good enough offer at hand.

The William Hill website has remained with the same design for the last 5 years but seems to work very well. If you are a newcomer to sports betting then you may find the site a bit overwhelming to start with, but it is actually quite simple to use.

When entering the site you are met with all the sports in a tidy area at the top of the page instead of the traditional left side menu you find on most sportsbooks.

The page load time is a little slow to load the opening page, but once inside the site the loading speed is quick. It is a little old fashioned in that the interface is set in the middle and is not full width. The reason for this is they have a left and right sidebar for promotions. It does deflect from the main centre area a little, but once you click on a sport you have a set of tabs that appear, this makes it easy to get to all content within one click.

Once you are used to the navigation then placing a bet is very straightforward.

William Hill are actually known not to be the best in terms of odds and place terms on horse racing and other sports.

The average margin across all sports at William Hill is 4.5% which is not the best but also not the worst. They are probably performing in the mid range of value when it comes to betting margins.

If you look at the margins they work to on individual sports then you will find that for Football they are trading at a 5.4% margin which is quite high, with Basketball at 4.0%, Tennis at 5.4% which is another high one, Baseball 3.9%, Ice hockey 4.5% and American Football at 3.9%.

It is interesting to see some of their lowest margins are on US sports, and this can be put down to the fact they have quite extensive operations in the United States and want to be at the forefront once US gambling laws change.

If they are good at one thing then range of bets and markets on various sports is definitely a strong point, this is why they are one of the most popular bookmakers online today.

At the time of writing this review you could bet on any football match and each one had between 240 to 270 markets available just for the one game.

Of course this includes all of your standard football markets like match result, first/last goalscorer, correct score, corners bets etc, etc, but some more obscure and interesting markets you can bet on include:

– Each team to have more than one corner in each half
– Over 2 goals, Over 3 cards and Over 10 corners in the match
– Player from team A and player from team B both to be carded
– Corners handicap bets where a team is given a + or – handicap on the corners market.

The above example is just on football but William Hill do this on a whole range of sports and not just football.

They also have the #YourOdds specials on sports, where you can request a price on a combination of scenarios happening in an event.

The range of In-play markets at William Hill is very extensive and a market is very easy to get to. At any point in time you will likely have a minimum of 3000 in play markets available to you across all sports. This increases hugely on a busy day like a Saturday.

Once you click on a sport from the top menu section you will be shown a set of tabs showing each league and the games taking place in that league. It is then just case of selecting your game and market.

From the main page all sports are shown in tabs below the main menu area. It will take you a maximum of 3 clicks to get to an In-play market and this is a real strength of William Hill, making it easy for In-play punters to find and bet on a market quickly.

Again the selection of in play markets is vast and even on a minor league like the Italian Serie C you will find close to one hundred markets to bet
on.

With the massive amount of markets available, one can get overwhelmed and maybe bet for the sake of having a bet. Make sure you stick to a consistent betting strategy and markets you know. The beauty of William Hill’s In-play betting is that it gives you the chance to find little pockets of value betting opportunities.

William Hill are always looking to cater for sports bettors across all sports and not just forn the traditional football and horse racing punters.

– Drive 55 is a bonus on American Football where you can get a 15% bonus if 55 points or more are scored in a game. If you place a bet on either their money line or match spread markets and it wins, you’ll get an extra 15% free bet bonus on top of your winnings, up to £50.

– All Sports enhanced odds is a selection of sporting events on the day and you can take enhanced odds on a whole range of sports including: tennis, cricket, rugby, greyhound racing and many others.

– For horse racing fans William Hill haver their High 5 promotion. High 5 gives you the chance to get a 15% free bet bonus. If the horse you backed wins by 5 or more lengths, you’ll get a 15% William Hill free bet bonus on top of your winnings, up to £100. This promo is available on selected
races.

– The Acca 5 Insurance promo is a great deal for football punters. If your fivefold acca is knocked out by one leg then you get your money back as a free bet.

There are lots more bonuses and promotions available for new and existing customers so be sure to check out our full bonus review of William Hill which gives more details.

William Hill offer a wide range of deposit and withdrawal options on the site.

You can use Visa and Mastercard (Debit or Credit) cards and they also accept virtual cards such as entro pay and paysafecard. In terms of e-wallets you can use Skrill and Neteller. They also offer the option to deposit and withdraw using bank transfer and their own William Hill CONNECT option.

Customer support is top class at William Hill, as you would expect from one of the leaders in the industry. We tested the live chat with a number of questions and had no issues with either the politeness of the agent or their knowledge of the various sports markets and offers.

It is clear that the staff at William Hill have been well trained and the reaction times on live chat are generally quick. We have tested the live chat also at peak times during a Saturday, but more importantly during big events including the European Football Championships and in horse racing
during The Cheltenham Festival.

During these events the support time can be up to 5 minutes so be prepared for that. If you have any special questions before big events like this, we would advise you check them before the event starts if possible.

William Hill is a publicly quoted company so not only do they have to work to the rules and regulations of the UK Gambling Commission but even more importantly they have to adhere to the strict guidelines laid down by the FSA in the United Kingdom as a member of the London Stock Exchange.

Although the sportsbook is registered and licensed in Gibraltar, it is a highly trusted sportsbook for punters and sports bettors.