Where do you think they will go to or should i sell now

StockMarketWire.com
William Hill said the group's FY operating profit for 2016 is about £260m, at the bottom end of its guided £260-£280m range.

In the nine weeks since the trading statement on 14 November 2016, wagering trends continued in line with those previously reported.

"However, gross win margins were below expectations, in large part due to unfavourable football and horseracing results impacting the sector during December," the company said in a statement.

Interim CEO Philip Bowcock commented:
"Importantly, the improvements we saw in wagering in Online and Australia in the second half have continued in recent weeks.

"However, all four divisions saw customer-friendly results at the back end of the year, which translated into profits being about £20m below our prior expectations.

"With key underlying trends continuing to be positive, the recent run of sporting results have not changed our confidence in a better performance in 2017."

Well above average turnover today.
2517

Looks like the FOBT are due to be regulated again, which is going to hit the bookies profits.

"The Fixed Odds Betting Terminal APPG will today launch the findings of their six month Inquiry “Fixed Odds Betting Assessing the Impact” which has taken in-depth evidence into the impact of FOBT machines in communities across the UK.

The Inquiry was launched following growing disquiet among politicians about the harm being caused on Britain’s High Streets by the high stake machines, which can be played with little supervision in any betting shop.

Concern has grown that the machines are both highly addictive and an anomaly in the regulatory framework, and offer high stakes casino style gambling with punters at risk of losing £100 every 20 seconds.

The findings of the report include
*That there is now a ‘prima facie’ case for significantly reducing the maximum stake that can be wagered on a FOBT
*At the very least the stake should be reduced on a precautionary basis, in line with the principles which govern the work of the Gambling Commission, until sufficient evidence is presented to the Government that the high stakes on these machines do not cause harm
*That the Gambling Commission “have failed” to adequately advise the Government in recent years, despite the principles for regulation and licencing under which the Gambling Commission operates
*That there is a case for the maximum stake to be reduced to £2
*Government should also consider reducing the speed of spin on a FOBT in order to reduce the potential for harm to be caused and also review the number of FOBTs permitted in an individual bookmaker
*Government should address localism concerns and calls for greater controls over FOBTs at the local level. Powers should be given to local authorities to prevent the clustering of betting shops.
The FOBT APPG, chaired by Carolyn Harris MP, took evidence from, among others, academics, problem gamblers, campaign groups, local authorities, industry experts, Gambling Minister Tracey Crouch, Sarah Harrison, Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission, Chris Kelly, Chair of the Responsible Strategy Gambling Board, Kate Lampard, Chair of Gamble Aware.

The bookies refused to take part in the Inquiry, which Ms Crouch said she was ‘surprised’ to hear."

The bookies response:

http://news.sky.com/story/fixed-odds-betting-terminals-report-is-rigged-say-bookmakers-10749628

StockMarketWire.com
William Hill has turned in a broadly steady FY pretax profit and dividend amid what it penned as a challenging year, particularly in H1.

Pretax profit was £181.3m, from £184.7m. Revenue was £1.60bn, from £1.59bn. Dividend was steady at 12.5p a share.

The company said its performance was below directors' expectations at the start of the year.

"However, we made a number of strategic and leadership changes to address this and ultimately delivered a full-year profit within the range of our revised expectations," it said.

"These changes continue to bear fruit, with strong indications that Online is returning to sustained growth."

Interim CEO Philip Bowcock said 2016 was a challenging year for William Hill, but one in which the company made considerable operational progress, leaving it well-placed to drive the business forward in 2017.

"We have delivered extensive product, user experience and marketing improvements in Online, modernised our Retail management structure to focus more on the customer and continued to grow in our key international markets," he said in a statement.

There were now encouraging signs in all of William Hill's divisions, in particular Online's UK business, which was now delivering sustained growth.

LOOKING FORWARD
Bowcock said William Hill wanted to keep improving the customer experience by expanding its product range, increasing marketing investment and deploying technology assets and expertise in key areas.

"At the same time, we expect our transformation programme to continue delivering important efficiency savings that we can reinvest to deliver an even better customer experience and faster growth," he said.

StockMarketWire.com
Wm Hill has made a positive start to the year, across the board, and at thi stage is in line with expectations for 2017.

"Our Online business continues to deliver growth thanks to the improvements in product, user experience and marketing we have made," said CEO Philip Bowcock.

"Retail is also seeing positive trends while our key international markets continue to perform well with double-digit wagering growth."

Bowcock said the company's transformation programme was progressing well and it was on track to deliver £40m of annualised savings by the year-end.

"Overall, we are in line with market expectations for 2017 at this early stage in the year."

Wm Hill said its total net revenue for the 17 weeks to April 25 was up 9%, with gains in online (up 16%), retail (1%), Australia (41%) and US (19%).

Seems to be falling over a cliff around the 250p mark

Looks overdone unless some clients had it away at Ascot!!!

Looking at the state of some of the women, I'm sure they did!....I'll get my coat.

Canaccord today:
"The pace of change in the US laws regarding sports betting and online gaming has been glacial. But there was an interesting milestone yesterday, pointing to the potential legalisation of sports betting across much of the US.
The US Supreme court announced yesterday that it will hear arguments on whether to permit sports betting in New Jersey. If favourable, it would overturn the rather curious Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). PASPA only permits racetrack betting on "animal racing", other than (as a quirk of history) Nevada, which is allowed fully licensed sports books, and in Oregon, Montana and Delaware, which have sports lotteries. New Jersey's proposals would only allow sports betting at Casinos and Racetracks, and would prohibit betting on some sports (ie College football). But if New Jersey wins, then other States will undoubtedly follow, and we could expect to see land-based sports betting proliferate across much of the US, with some obvious exception (ie Utah).
There is no guarantee that the hearing will be favourable, and realistically, the outcome is unlikely to be clear until 2018. But this does suggest a sea change in attitudes towards sports betting - the NBA, for example, is now favourable to legalising betting on basketball, having previously been fiercely opposed.
The major initial beneficiary of any change would be William Hill (Hold, TP 290p), which is the leading land-based sports betting operator in Nevada. However, we would see the legalisation of some land-based sports betting as paving the way for Online sports betting in some states. We believe the most obvious beneficiaries would be GVC (Buy, TP 850p) and 888 (Buy, TP 330p), which both operate in New Jersey (Casino and Poker), and have strong domestic partnerships - with MGM and Caesars, respectively. Playtech (Buy, TP 1140p) would also be well placed as a potential technology supplier to domestic operators."

Investec note:
We see further headwinds for William Hill with tough comparables given the Euros in 2016, very poor GWMs in all four divisions in the last 2 months of H117E, a credit betting ban in Australia (we estimate a c.17.5% loss of Australian revenue from March 2018), a change in revenue mix in Australia (lower future GWMs) and higher central costs. The Triennial Review poses further risk to Retail revenue while the CMA review raises the risk of fines and lower customer acquisition/monitored bonusing. We set our TP at 245p (prev. 279p) and downgrade to SELL from Hold.
FY17/FY18E EPS downgraded by 8.1%/5.0: We lower FY17E EPS to reflect weaker GWMs YTD, higher central costs and changes to the revenue mix (more racing and less sports) which we expect to lead to lower future GWMs. For FY18E, we reduce EPS for these reasons as well as an Australian ban on credit betting (assumed from 1 March 2018 onwards).
Last 2 months of H117: WMH last updated the market on 9th May, when it reported net revenue growth of 9%. We expect GWMs to be significantly lower across all 4 divisions for the remaining 2 months of H117E given punter-friendly sports results. We estimate Retail, Online, Australian and US gross win margins of 16.5%, 5.8%, 7.6% and 5.6% respectively for the remaining 2 months of H117E. This results in H117E GWMs for Retail, Online, Australia and the US of 17.5% (H116: 19%), 6.9% (H116: 7.3%), 8% (H116: 9.9%) and 6% (H116: 5.7%) respectively. We now forecast FY17E EBIT of £258.7m.
Aussie credit betting and lower future GWMs: We downgrade FY18E Australian revenue by 8.3% and EBIT by 10.9% (assuming 10 months of the credit betting ban). We now assume a GWM between 9% and 10% (down from 10%-11%) given changes in revenue mix (more racing, less sport and less in-play).
Valuation: We lower our target price to 245p to reflect higher central costs, the credit betting ban in Australia and greater risk surrounding both the CMA review and Triennial Review given the outcome of the recent UK election. We value the Group at 8.0x FY17E adj. EV/EBITDA. The shares trade at 8.5x FY17E EV/EBITDA."

Australia (5% of EBIT): While the sportsbetting market is growing at 15%pa, the business faces familiar headwinds in terms of competition, regulation and taxation. Please see our note of 16 June following a meeting with Tom Waterhouse, CEO of William Hill Australia. Last week the Australian government announced it would legislate to ban credit betting, which represents 30% of group revenues and 25% of gross profit. Assuming the legislation proceeds this could impact profits by around £17m next year. In addition there is a significant risk of tax increases, which may prompt consolidation in the market.

StockMarketWire.com
William Hill said its online and retail divisions in the UK were growing at or above market growth rates in the 26 weeks ended 27 June 2017.

HIGHLIGHTS:
- Online: UK Sportsbook amounts wagered +13% and UK gaming net revenue +9%

- Retail: amounts wagered +2% and gaming net revenue +3%

- International revenue growth: continued net revenue growth in Australia and US

- Transformation and technology: on track to deliver £40m of annualised efficiency savings by year-end and, over the long term, improved revenues, greater cost efficiency and better organisational effectiveness

FINANCIAL RESULTS:
- Group net revenue up 3% to £837m

- Adjusted operating profit of £129.5m, down 1%

- Adjusted EPS2 of 11.2p, up 7%

- Strong cash generation with operating cash flow of £115.3m

- Balance sheet remains healthy with net debt for covenant purposes of £604.6m, 1.7x EBITDA

- Interim dividend increased 4% to 4.26p per share, reflecting the group's continued strong cash flow and the Board's confidence in delivery of strategic priorities

Some short lived excitement in WMH late this afternoon touching 305p before finishing @ 283.80p up 5.80p

StockMarketWire.com
William Hill confirmed that it is in "very preliminary: discussions with CrownBet, the 62%-owned online wagering business of Australia's Crown Resorts, regarding a possible combination with William Hill Australia.

The admission came in response to media speculation.

"There is no certainty that these preliminary discussions will lead to any transaction," William Hill said.

Big drop for all the bookies as the maximum bet for fixed odds betting machines is rumoured to be a mandatory £2.

Someone back a winner!!!!

Whats the story here?

Seems the £2 max bet on FOBM's is set to become reality. Sp down 13%,

I suppose the punters who use "FIXED odds betting terminals". Clue is in the title.

Will just have to spend longer at the machine to lose the same amount.

CBS News
"The rush for legal sports betting is on, and gamblers around the U.S. have New Jersey to thank for what experts think will be an onslaught of action.

Monday's Supreme Court's ruling strikes down a 1992 federal law barring gambling on football, basketball and other sports in most states. Within minutes of the decision becoming public, state governments and companies announced plans to jump into the betting business."

StockMarketWire.com
Annualised adjusted operating profit in William Hill's retail division could be reduced by £70m to £100m as a result of a decision by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to reduce the maximum stake on B2 games from £100 to £2.

In the first four months of the current financial year, around 70% of William Hill's total gaming machine net revenue was generated by stakes in excess of the proposed £2 threshold.

The annualised impact of a £2 staking limit could be a reduction in total gaming net revenue of 35% to 45%.

The stake limit could result in around 900 William Hill shops (38% of its existing Retail estate) becoming loss-making. A proportion of these would be at risk of being closed within a relatively short time of the proposed staking change being implemented.

The board's current intention is to retain the existing dividend policy to pay out approximately 50% of underlying earnings.

Philip Bowcock, chief executive officer, said: "William Hill has a long and proud heritage as part of the UK high street and we know how important betting shops are to our customers and their local economies. The government has handed us a tough challenge today and it will take some time for the full impact to be understood, for our business, the wider high street and key partners like horseracing. We will continue to evolve our Retail business in order to adapt to this change and we will support our colleagues as best we can. Despite the challenges presented by this decision, our teams will compete hard and offer great service to William Hill customers."