COVID-19 Impact: William Hill Suspends Dividend

In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, William Hill has suspended dividends until further notice. The company anticipates a material impact to its revenue and earnings in 2020. The company expects its EBITDA is by £100m.

To determine the effect of COVID-19, the company considers some possible outcomes including, but not limited to; UK and International football resuming in August, the cancellation or postponement until 2021 of the UEFA European Football Championship, UK retail shop closures for one month, the cancellation of the Grand National and Royal Ascot and US sports resuming in time for the new NFL season in September.

“These are truly unprecedented times but William Hill has been around for 86 years and over that time we have gained huge experience and understanding of our customers. People want to place sports bets and they will continue to do so where possible. In recent days we have seen betting on horses, greyhounds, international football and our well-established virtual sports,” Ulrik Bengtsson, CEO of William Hill, said.

“We are taking action to maintain our operational capability, to secure and enhance our liquidity and to ensure we are in a strong position to resume full operations when the sporting calendar returns to normal. We have been quick to initiate our business continuity plans, which have been in place for some weeks, with our colleague’s and customer’s welfare highest on the agenda. Large parts of the business continue to operate on a ‘business as usual’ basis,” Ulrik Bengtsson added.