UK bookies William Hill have added online and mobile casino content courtesy of Microgaming’s Quickfire open platform. Hills debuted its new Microgaming wares on July 17 and Hills director of gaming James Curwen touted the product’s “world-class” status as well as Microgaming’s capacity for “rapid development” of new titles. The deal marks something of a supplier merry-go-round, with Microgaming having previously supplied its product to Hills’ rival Ladbrokes, who have since switched over to Playtech, who were bought out of the William Hill Online joint venture earlier this year, although they continue to supply content to the site. Curwen stressed that the addition of Quickfire options was simply a stab at “diversification” and in no way affected Hills’ relationship with Playtech.
In other Hills’ news, the bookies have tapped the GolinHarris agency to handle their consumer public relations. Following the severing of ties with former agency Lexis, Hills has been trying out GolinHarris for the past couple months, including work on Hills’ royal sprog prop bet campaigns. PR Week quoted GolinHarris deputy MD Bibi Hilton saying the company will focus on raising the profile of Hills’ online and mobile businesses. Hills is celebrating its 80th birthday in 2014, and the company is keen to avoid being thought of as your granddad’s bookmaker. Hilton said her outfit was keen to put in place “a new ‘always on’ strategy” to remind consumers “how much they love this iconic brand.”
As if on cue, Hills has rolled out a new ad campaign pimping the company’s mobile offering ahead of the new English and Scottish football seasons. The campaign, which will begin airing on Friday (2), was created by Leeds-based Bark & Bite and London prodco Mainframe. Hills’ UK marketing director Alex O’Shaughnessy said the new adverts (viewable at the bottom of this page) “really show our appetite to continually evolve” by providing viewers with facts and stats surrounding individual matches “to increase engagement and talkability.”
New ‘football’ seasons are also revving up stateside, where William Hill US operates 75 retail locations across Nevada. Hills US is running three National Football League and college football contests with a total purse of $400k up for grabs. Deadline for entries for all three contests – Pro Pick ‘em, College Pick ‘em and Three ‘n Out Pro Football – is Sept. 7 and further details are available via the Williamhill.us site. Stateside PR director Jimmy Vaccaro said the Three ‘n Out contest proved “wildly popular” during this year’s NCAA March Madness and the company expects it will be “an even bigger hit on the gridiron.” Now, back to the ‘real’ football promos…
