William Hill’s online casino brand William Hill Casino Club has ceased operations in Russia, local media reported.
According to media reports, the online gambling operator has notified Russian players that they would not be able to access the online casino brand as of September 23 and that all player accounts would be suspended, following the announcement. William Hill Casino Club cited regulatory reasons for its decision to stop providing casino operations to the Russian iGaming market.
As many as 439 online gambling websites were blocked by Roskomnadzor, or Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies, and Mass Communications, in the period between September 15-21. As Russian media pointed out, the regulator has introduced stricter regulations regarding the provision of iGaming products and services within the country’s borders and has expanded the list of criteria an operator should meet in order to be able to service local players.
As part of Roskomnadzor’s efforts to prevent the illicit distribution of iGaming options, the regulator blocked over 1,700 websites in August. The regulatory body even extended its crackdown’s reach to social media by blocking operators’ account on various social networks.
Facebook, Twitter, and their Russian counterpart VKontakte were among those requested by Roskomnadzor to suspend all accounts that may be promoting gambling options provided by unlicensed operators. As a result, VKontakte alone blocked more than 250 such accounts, with those being linked to 40 different gambling operators.
Online gaming and betting operations have enjoyed increasing popularity among Russian gambling customers over the past several years. Russian gambling news website Betting Business Russia reported late last year that gambling websites were visited by approximately 205.4 million Russian players in 2015. According to the same report, popular international operators like William Hill and bet365 held a 34% share of the overall traffic generated.
William Hill is currently UK’s largest operator of sports betting outlets and one of the world’s major gambling companies with operations in multiple jurisdictions and across different channels. Back in August, it rejected a £3.1-billion cash-and-stock acquisition offer by fellow operators Rank Group and 888 Holdings.
