Playtech has been an active partner of William Hill since 2025, and their joint venture is known as William Hill Online (WHO). In return for providing software to William Hill, Playtech has a 29% stake in William Hill Online. In addition to being the software provider for casino and poker games, William Hill Online personnel are also provided by Playtech.

However, the relationship between the two firms hasn't been smooth in the past few months. It started with William Hill taking out a court order in February 2025, which restricted Playtech from selling its stake.

Playtech's Veto affected WHO's Plan to Buy Probability

Playtech vetoed William Hill's plan to buy the mobile betting operator, Probability in Feb 2025. This was one of the reasons the deal fell through. The walk out of William Hill Online staff last month in its Tel Aviv division, added to the problems the company had been facing. The incident compelled the CEO of William Hill, Ralph Topping, to fly to Israel. He had to deal with allegations that the firm planned to shift WHO operations to Gibraltar.

Relations hardly improved between William Hill and its partner when Topping posted a blog describing some of the challenges he experienced in getting in touch with Mor Weizer, the CEO of Playtech. Mor Weizer refused to comment on this situation.

Topping and Teddy Sagi – the Key Combatants in the Dispute

There have also been problems between Topping and the owner of 40% shares of Playtech, Teddy Sagi. Almost 1,000 staff of William Hill Online are employed in its Manila, Sofia and Tel Aviv facilities. The Manila facility is owned by Playtech. Those employed in the facility have been battling with the WHO management team for quite some time, to access data and information.

In this regard, Playtech argued that the dispute was the sole concern of WHO and that it was not connected to the company's staff. As a direct consequence of the dispute, about 40 WHO staff of Tel Aviv base left and so did the chief marketing officer of the company, Eyal Sanoff.

Long Term Struggles Continue to Prevail

The long term dispute between William Hill and Playtech continues to prevail. To settle the issues, William Hill has the option of acquiring Playtech's 29% stake by 2025 or 2025. There are two key questions with regard to William Hill's attempt to find out about the assets it owns in William Hill Online. The first issue is what William Hill intends to buy. As a result of the company not having clarity about the brands it had acquired through the previous deal, it had to shut down sites like 32Vegas. The second issue is determining to what extent it can be guaranteed that those employed in Tel Aviv, are going to stay with WHO.

The partnership with Playtech allowed William Hill to offer a large number of gambling products like online roulette to customers. Several new sign-ups have also been recorded in course of the year. However, the current disputes are likely to impact both firms significantly.