Bookies Shops in the new normal from June 15th

All betting slips are off as bookies return after coronavirus
Sabah Meddings
Sunday June 07 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

Punters will not be offered a cup of tea when they walk back into betting shops next week. Nor will they be encouraged to use a betting slip to back their favoured horse at Royal Ascot.

Measures brought in to stop the spread of Covid-19 have driven Britain’s biggest gambling firms to overhaul how their shops operate.

“We’ll be bringing in ‘call-over’ betting, where you make your selection, go to the counter, speak your bet and collect your receipt,” said Nicola Frampton, head of retail at William Hill. Customers, 90% of whom bet with cash, will be pushed to use contactless payments.

Betting shops are on a list of non-essential retailers allowed to reopen in England on June 15. Shops in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will reopen later. Operators will enforce strict social distancing measures, limit the number of customers inside and remove furniture to stop punters sticking around to watch events.

It will be a reputational balancing act for Britain’s big names, including William Hill, Paddy Power owner Flutter Entertainment and GVC, the owner of Ladbrokes Coral.


While they want customers back for the return of sport, including the Premier League on June 17, they do not want to be accused of exploiting those stuck at home or off work due to Covid-19. All have agreed to pause TV and radio advertising during lockdown.

When William Hill reopens, initially there will be no promotions. Posters will be limited to “welcome back” greetings, and advice to stay at home if feeling unwell.

“There’s been a lot of voluntary action taken by the industry in response to concern about incomes and wellbeing . . . we felt it wasn’t appropriate at this moment to be having massive promotions in the windows,” said Frampton.

Betting operators still expect big losses in their 7,315 shops after reopening. They are already smarting from a crackdown on betting machines that allowed players to gamble up to £300 a minute. Last year, the maximum stake for one spin was slashed to £2, driving revenue from the machines down from £1.1bn to £624m between October 2018 and September 2019.

Shareholders suffered, too. Shares in William Hill have halved in two years, closing at 153.8p on Friday. Until recently, bookmakers had enjoyed rapid growth. Gross gambling yield — the amount kept after winnings — had risen from £8.4bn to £14.3bn over a decade, partly thanks to the 2005 Gambling Act, which allowed betting companies to advertise.

Moves to restrict ads, including a whistle-to-whistle ban during sports events, could threaten this. Bookies also face pressure on costs as staff come off state support. William Hill has 8,000 staff on furlough; GVC has 15,000.

Smaller operators with little or no online presence will be under particular strain. “We’d be happy with 50% [of usual trade] in the first few weeks,” said Greg Knight, managing director of Jenningsbet. He plans to install plastic screens between betting machines and have a staff member act as “social distancing ambassador”.

GVC plans a “one in, one out” system at peak times, using remote-controlled door locks. Flutter is to remove comfortable seating in its Paddy Power shops.

“We recognise it’s going to be a different world,” said Dan Taylor, Flutter’s chief executive for Europe. “I’m acutely aware of the broader political environment . . . It is critical that we create a safe environment.”

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