William Hill bets on Everton; commits to battle against match-fixers

August 1 – William Hill has agreed a two-year partnership with Premier League Everton to become its new official betting partner, offering exclusive odds to Everton fans.

Yesterday the bookmaker, a partner of the English and Scottish football associations, announced a memorandum of understanding with the Scottish FA on betting integrity. This mirrors an agreement with the English FA and commits to an exchange of information related to suspected betting irregularities, including issues such as match fixing and insider betting on their events.

The Everton deal will see William Hill offer exclusive competitions and money-can’t-buy prizes, as well as Everton specific markets. It will receive branding across the club’s LED screens and interview backdrops as well as providing an improved concourse betting experience for fans at Goodison Park.

Alan McTavish, Head of Commercial at Everton Football Club, said: “Ahead of an exciting new season we look forward to working together with William Hill … and developing a long-term partnership that covers the traditional betting and the emerging interactive markets.”

Alex O’Shaughnessy, Chief Marketing Officer at William Hill, echoed his comments saying: “We look forward to offering the millions of Evertonians a fun and innovative betting service across all of retail and digital channels.”

The information exchange agreements includes issues such as match fixing and insider betting on all events under the jurisdiction of the two governing bodies.

Sports betting integrity

The MoUs signed with the English and Scottish FA are a reminder of the threat to the game of betting related match-fixing on the eve of the new league seasons.

Betting related match-fxing is already monitored in the English and Scottish leagues by Sportradar (for UEFA) and the newly created Sport Integrity Monitor (Premier League). It is unclear what the new MoUs will add to that fraud detection over and above the co-operation all ready taking place.

But they do bring focus on what is one of the biggest challenges facing the sport.

Bill South, Director of Security and Community Affairs at William Hill said “William Hill is the biggest bookmaker in Britain and it’s important for us to take a leadership role in the protection of the integrity of our national sport.”

These two MoU’s will help safeguard the integrity of football in both England and Scotland, and we are firmly committed to working closely with both FA’s to ensure our beautiful game isn’t sullied.”

Peter McLaughlin, Scottish FA Security and Integrity Officer, said “The Scottish FA is committed to keeping the national game clean in the face of the growing global challenges of match-fixing and other integrity related issues.

“Indeed, the group met earlier this week to discuss trends and incidents that happen across Europe, to ensure we remain alive to new and existing threats.”

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