Topping the Bill
Despite his 30-plus years at the firm, William Hill's chief executive Ralph Topping is showing no signs of slowing down as a driving force for both his own company and the industry as a whole. Betview found out more about his view of the future
It would take a great deal of vision and confidence to believe that you could go from being a Saturday bookmaker's assistant in Glasgow to later head that company – one of the world's largest bookmakers – but that's exactly what William Hill boss Ralph Topping has achieved. Taking a Saturday role in 1973 in a William Hill shop near Hampden Park ensured that Topping could afford to keep his car in petrol. The journey that has followed, including roles as shop manager, regional manager, retail operations director and internet director before appointment as William Hill chief executive, is unlikely to be replicated, with the man himself describing a repeat as 'long odds against'.
Topping – recently named as No 1 in Betview's 'top 50 most influential people in the betting industry' – has remained a permanent fixture in the business throughout a succession of company takeovers, a flotation and an industry that had witnessed numerous regulatory changes. Many industry observers were initially surprised with the in-house appointment of Topping as chief executive in February 2008 after the touting of a series of external candidates. Instead chairman Charles Scott, after a lengthy head-hunting process, at the time stated: 'It became more and more clear as things went on that Ralph's in-depth knowledge of both the industry and the company far outweighed his lack of experience of being a chief executive.'
When Betview caught up with Topping, the DCMS had just announced their intentions regarding British licensing for overseas online gambling operators. The accompanying ministerial statement by Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe makes strong references to a review of taxation and horse racing Levy contributions for overseas operators. The news could hardly have been welcomed by Hill, as a primary motive for their online operations move offshore was considered to be the favourable taxation that an overseas base provided. However, a calm Topping was keen to play down the significance of the tax savings and the minister's statement.
'A lot of people play up the tax advantage as the basis of the move, but the reality of life is that the best brains in the e-commerce or gaming world are to be found in Europe and further east of Europe,' he says. 'Why is that? Because the UK failed to turn itself into a centre for gambling which it had a massive opportunity to do. You are also not going to get people coming from elsewhere in the world to a country which now taxes high earners at 50 per cent. So those were some of the reasons but also the very cogent reason that we were starting up a new venture and the best place we could find to do that was Gibraltar and we remain happy with that decision.'
Topping is equally mystified by the Government's stance on regulation. 'Nothing about the minister's statement worries us as we're in a well-regulated territory in Gibraltar,' he says. 'It's a bit disingenuous of them to say this is the best regulated country in the world. To me, if you're going to have good regulation then you've got to have regulators who work with business. I can tell you here and now that the other places in the world where we are regulated the regulators work far more effectively with us as a business than the UK regulators do.
'These are not pushover regulators – the big difference is how they view their job which is to help business in a positive sense and at the same time protect customers and ensure operators work to a high standard. Unfortunately in the UK we have a very negative civil service-led regulatory regime and I think that has to change. There is very little engagement between the Gambling Commission in Birmingham and business.'
As highlighted by its summer move, much of William Hill's recent activity has revolved around online business growth. The firm took the decision to scrap an in-house software platform at the end of 2007 at the cost of £26 million because of its 'inflexibility'. However, positive strides have been made since with the implementation of an Orbis-supplied platform and a significant deal with Playtech, the online gaming software provider. Topping is delighted with the turnaround in this key area. 'I think we made huge leaps forward last year in many areas of William Hill online,' he says. 'We've refreshed our key products, we've launched new sportsbook, poker and casino sites. In Orbis and Playtech we have two good suppliers who are leaders in their fields. We've built a team almost from scratch in Gibraltar including a new management team. We've integrated our team with marketing and customer service divisions which we acquired through Uniplay.'
He continues: 'If you said at the end of 2008 this is what you're going to do this year, people would have said we were crazy. I have to pay tribute to our guys – who I can be quite tough on – who pulled it off. The Playtech integration took time to begin with as anything like this does but it's come good. We've shown terrific growth in the last four months and during this difficult spell with the weather the online business has been performing particularly well.'
Fears that the online business is taking precedence over the retail side are quickly allayed by Topping. 'We could never afford to neglect our retail business but we've got big ambitions for online,' he says. 'Remember, 15,000 of the 16,000 people who work for William Hill are on the retail side. We've got an experienced, energised and enthusiastic management team to ensure that retail delivers year after year in what is a very tough environment in the UK. The numbers have spoken for themselves, speak for themselves and will hopefully continue to speak for themselves.
'It's been a challenging year and I couldn't be more proud of the achievements of every single William Hill employee. It's a recognition of their effort that we have bagged five nominations in this year's Betview Awards which have become the benchmark for industry excellence. While I'd settle for matching the two Awards we won last year, for Most Creative Marketing Campaign and with Bambos Charalambous for Manager of the Year, I have high hopes that we will earn more recognition this year, not least in the Online Company of the Year category given that Williamhill.com outperformed the industry over the last year and grew the business across a whole range of products.
'But I would congratulate all the Betview Awards finalists, no matter whom they work for, it's a reward for a job well done.'
Back on the subject of retail, Topping admits the Government dictates many of their developments: 'We're very much dependent on deregulation and a favourable taxation approach to help us,' he says. 'We're going through a phase at the moment where we've got people who are looking at regulation the wrong way. We've got some very less than creative thinkers in Government and institutions such as the Gambling Commission. Things change though and we'll hopefully get bigger brains in both the Commission and Government before too long.'
Another major influence on the direction of UK retail is the significance of the Racing for Change project, instigated to increase popularity in the horse racing. The project team has initially published ten initiatives with further announcements due later in the year. Topping, although supportive of the project, is less than enamoured with the ten initiatives.
'I support Racing for Change but, at the moment, I don't see any “wow” ideas coming out of it such as when Rugby League moved to summer scheduling, or when Cricket implemented Twenty20,' he says. 'These were radical ideas, attracted audiences and got people interested. I don't want to degenerate what Racing for Change is trying to do but it's a bit like employing an architect to design a “wow” house but at the moment we've got a prefab!'
It would be an understatement of some proportion to suggest that Topping has had a less than healthy relationship with racing down the years but he recently surprised onlookers by throwing an olive branch to BHA chairman Paul Roy over their mutual disdain for betting exchanges. Their shared derision has prompted Topping to arrange a meeting with racing's supremo to discuss a number of issues surrounding exchange usage. Topping is clearly riled by the subject.
'Paul Roy made some statements that I could agree with over the issue of exchanges,' he says. 'Horse racing is clearly not getting the full Levy that is due to it. I would make the categorical statement that horse racing has never been more popular as a medium to bet on but racing is not getting the full amount that is due to them as a lot of the transactions are probably through what I would call illegal layers on Betfair. So if Paul Roy wants a healthy horse racing industry and we want a level playing field, there is some commonality there.'
He continues: 'I call Betfair the choirboys of the betting industry – “look at us we're so innocent” – actually the exchanges are the biggest Masonic lodge there is. They're a massive secret society where illegal gambling is taking place. What would throw a spanner in the works is if William Hill came up with an exchange model which could be offered in our betting shops or through our telephone business.
'I'm sure the Government wouldn't like us to fully develop that model but it's something that we're always looking at and we've had some very interesting legal advice on the subject. In practical terms we'd be saying unless we have a change, a real thorough review of this where bookmakers are treated more favourably and more fairly then there is a distinct possibility that turmoil could ensue if bookmakers were to move to an exchange model which would impact upon Levy and taxation. You have to say that bookmakers are fairly creative people and I'm sure that at some point in time a bookmaker, not necessarily William Hill, will come up with a model which will disrupt Government thinking on the subject.'
As for other industry predictions, Topping is reluctant to look too far ahead. 'Five-year plans are for Russian tractor factories but not for bookmakers,' he says. 'If you're looking at trends then the obvious focus is the online business as the digital world is not going to go away. And I think in the next five years the volume that we see coming over our betting counters will hit a peak. Society's changed, technology has changed and customers change. We're already seeing that people are much more interested in the instantaneous and using their particular knowledge to bet on sports and international sports that appear on Sky and ESPN.
'So it's no particular surprise that something like horse racing, which can't even get exposure on terrestrial television, isn't having the same impact. 'You can pretend it's a sport but it doesn't capture the public's interest as a sport, it captures the public's interest as a betting product. I don't have it in for horse racing as I enjoy it but if it doesn't cater for the betting public it will have a very rocky ride.'
Topping clearly has his hands full but incredibly still finds time to keep up a Saturday job, becoming chairman of the Scottish Premier League in October 2009. His motivations for undertaking the part-time role have also changed with petrol money no longer the primary concern, partly because he refuses to draw a salary. So why does he do it? Topping provides a typically positive answer. 'I enjoy working and thrive on working,' he says.
Of course, Topping's incredible work ethic is apparent in his day job too as he continues to inspire William Hill to ever-greater heights. 'It's a stimulating job,' he says. 'I'm very lucky to be working at a company like William Hill. Have there been easier times in betting? Yes, some of my immediate predecessors were lucky to have headwinds behind them, primarily concerning taxation and a booming economy. It's a different environment now but I'm not complaining – for every downturn there's an upturn!'
