Will William Hill Control All Sports Betting in Nevada?

Has William Hill bought out Cantor Gaming? If so, what is their long-term plan? Sports bettors are hurt by this continuing lack of competition. Will WH eventually control all sport betting in Nevada? Is there a chance that this betting octopus can be stopped?

[Editor's Note: This answer is supplied by our newest author, Logan Fields. We're selling his new book, 2020 Sports Betting -- Think Like a Pro, which is on sale now and will be shipping in the next couple of weeks. Note that it was written before Wednesday's announcement that Caesars Entertainment is acquiring the Britain-based William Hill for 2.9 billion pounds ($3.7 billion). Caesars is expected to sell off William Hill's non-U.S. operations, consisting of more than 1,400 betting shops in the United Kingdom, but continue to expand its U.S. operations.]

I'm not sure what their long-term plan is, but William Hill has been super-aggressive over the last few years in gobbling up sports book after sports book. With their takeover of CG Technology (formerly Cantor Gaming) in late August and Caesars in September, they now have a dominating presence on the Strip, with books at the Cosmopolitan, Venetian/Palazzo, Circus Circus, Sahara, Casino Royale, and Tropicana. They also run the books at Silverton, the Strat, Downtown Grand, Binion’s, Plaza, and Four Queens, and will operate at the Palms when it returns. When the dust settles, William Hill will have 120 race and sports books in Nevada, including kiosks and an app.

If that sounds pretty dismal for sports bettors, especially those staying in the heart of the Strip, well, it is. They’ll pretty much have only two choices for placing their bets: MGM and William Hill. The Wynn and Treasure Island are the remaining outliers.

William Hill caters to recreational players, so one has to wonder how their act will play out at upscale Strip properties. If a whale gets a hot hand and beats one of their books for a few big bets, will Will Hill be as quick to cut him off as they have other winning players in the past? William Hill has always denied cutting off winning players, but I can attest that they do. I'm one of them. You can read the whole story in 2020 Sports Betting. So something has to give.

Still, it’s not all gloom and doom. Circa will, if all goes according to schedule, open downtown later this month and will contain the largest sports book the world has ever seen. Circa has already opened sports books at the D and Golden Gate and its business model has been impressive so far. Circa appears to have designs of becoming the number-one book in Vegas and it's off to a really good start, at least in my opinion.

In addition, Virgin Las Vegas, which hopes to open this year, will have UK-based Betfred Sports run their sportsbook, adding another out to the mix. Additionally, Resorts World, scheduled to open in 2021, will also run its own sports book.

With Circa, plus the addition of Betfred and Resorts World, Vegas sports bettors will have more than a dozen outs to choose from (Westgate, Stations, Golden Nugget, Boyd, and of course South Point). Not bad. So while William Hill is carving out quite a presence, they still have a long way to go before monopolizing the Vegas sports betting market.

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AyeCarambaPoker Oct-02-2020

Good timing

This is a very timely question as Caesars have just had a bid accepted to buy William Hill. This still needs to go through shareholder approval which isn’t guaranteed as the current price is below the offer, albeit it was a premium to the market value on the day of the offer which caused the price to spike. 

Caesars have already said that they are only really interested in WH’s US operations which seem to be worth more than the offer price so the rest of the operations (mainly UK based) are likely being held at a negative book value and will be divested or closed https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-30/caesars-agrees-to-buy-u-k-s-william-hill-for-3-7-billion

If the offer isn’t accepted by shareholders then Caesars are likely to look to terminate their JV with WH

salukidean Oct-02-2020

Circa will have location near the strip.....

They already have a deal in place to take over the book at the Tuscany (currently operated by William Hill).    That book does decent business now and I expect it to grow as many people seek an option to the William Hills surrounding them

Kevin Rough Oct-02-2020

It's odd

When sports betting came to Pennsylvania, not one casino opted to go with William Hill.  I guess though that Harrah's Philadelphia will be going with William Hill due to their intended merger.  So I wonder why casinos in PA chose to go with different sports books and the dominant book in NV was all but shut out.

IdahoPat Oct-02-2020

Kevin ...

Several of the larger Pennsylvania casinos opted to keep their bookmaking in-house, as you probably know. And with Penn National doing likewise with its Barstool-branded sports books, I wouldn't be surprised if WH just figured it was too late in the game to ramp up their operations in Pennsylvania. Maybe someone else can opine ...

Question of the Day - 02 October 2020

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