William Hill is set to launch its global betting brand in Australia where it will replace its three existing brands, Sportingbet, TomWaterhouse.com and Centrebet.
Sportingbet will be the first to be rebranded, changing to William Hill ahead of the upcoming Autumn Racing Carnival and the 2015 NRL and AFL seasons. The re-branding of Centrebet and TomWaterhouse.com to William Hill will follow in due course.
William Hill Australia will increase its already significant marketing budget by c$10m to launch the William Hill brand. The decision will allow the business to focus its marketing investment behind a single brand and enable it to leverage the value of the wider Group’s high-profile international sponsorships and existing marketing assets.
Tom Waterhouse, CEO of William Hill Australia, commented:
“The change to William Hill will give us a recognised and respected international brand with which to compete at the highest level in Australia’s competitive market. It will also allow us to work much more closely with global racing and sporting bodies and provide our Australian customers with more diverse betting opportunities. We’ve seen awareness of the brand build strongly since introducing ‘powered by William Hill’ to the market and now is the right time to launch.
“William Hill Australia has completed a significant improvement phase over the last 18 months. We have a passionate and experienced management team in place, a strong internal technology capability and a more effective approach to marketing. We are continuing to improve the user experience – particularly in mobile – and are vastly expanding the product range to bring Australian customers a differentiated and exciting experience.”