WilliamHill loses branding power at Australian Open

THE most-successful bookmaker promotion deal of 2016 will continue on in 2017, but in a watered-down form.

WilliamHill.com.au will not have a court-side branding presence at the coming Australian Open, but the bookmaker will continue to be a betting partner of the event.

William Hill’s ‘Chase the Ace’ promotion, in addition to a prominent advertising presence, led to the Hill’s marketing and management teams popping champagne bottles early in 2016.

William Hill reported an 80% rise in betting turnover after the tournament, thanks to the exposure its $5 million deal bought them in Australia and overseas.

It’s in-play betting was also up 297%, but that could be put down to the now-illegal in-play betting app.

Why can’t WilliamHill.com.au have it advertising presence on-court in 2017?

Public and Government pressure following match-fixing and suspicious betting patterns during the 2016 tournament dominated headlines. While everyone investigated was completely cleared, it’s obvious Australian Open organisers don’t want to be seen encouraging more controversy. Tennis Australia president Steve Healy admitted as much this week.

“We need to put it in perspective. The arrangements that were struck with William Hill before this issue had such a high profile and so we’ve worked with our partners to address that,” he said.

Tennis Australia announced that it has also beefed up its security and integrity unit. Two investigators will work full time every day of the Open to monitor suspicious betting.

It’s an initiative that Healy says WilliamHill has supported and taken a big role in helping initiate.

“It’ll just be random matches and from that then we’ll just be looking at the data.”

Our say on WilliamHill’s Australian Open deal

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see this coming.

The last 12 months have been filled with debate and controversy over match-fixing, in-play betting and the effect of bookmaker advertising on television and inside sporting arenas.

While Tennis Australia should be commended for landing the $5 million deal that should support the sport’s growth and fund some of Nick Kyrgios’ inevitable rehab, we can understand why the decision has been made to remove the bookmaker branding on the courts – it’s a sensible face-saving move and protects the deal in place.

WilliamHill.com.au will still use its position as betting partner to promote its betting specials and attract punters – you can bet your bottom dollar that the super-successful ‘Chase the Ace’ promotion will be back in 2017.

But the real issue here is one we’ll get repeating until we’re blue in the face at BettingSite.com.au.

William Hill’s in-play betting turnover was up 297% in January after just a couple of weeks of promotion.

This is a product that punters in Australia want. Instead of being able to partake in the market within a legal and regulated system run by professionals, punters have to instead go to illegal, offshore bookmakers to bet during games.

When you give illegal bookmakers a chance to dominate and have influence over markets, problems will arise.

Instead of the grey-area that previously existed, now we have a blanket ban on in-play betting and you can expect more match-fixing controversy and suspicious bets as a result.