William Hill affiliates told to halt promotions for unlicensed US-facing sites

William Hill, the UK gaming giant, is gently reminding its US-facing affiliates that promoting unlicensed gambling sites to American audiences is strictly forbidden. It’s a sentiment that has a sound legal foundation and is backed up by nothing less than the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.
Late last week, the UK operator sent out an email to all its US-facing affiliates telling them “not to promote William Hill alongside unlicensed US operators on any website.” The note went on to suggest that William Hill affiliates who continued the practice would cease to be William Hill affiliates.
That William Hill picked this particular time to crack down on affiliates who promote unlicensed sites was no coincidence. Earlier in the week, the New Jersey Department of Gaming Enforcement sent out an advisory whose purpose was, “…to inform news and media outlets and other entities engaged in sportsbook advertising in New Jersey about the importance of not endorsing or referencing internet sportsbook operators that are not authorized to accept wagers from customers in New Jersey.”
Living by the word of the DGE is very important to William Hill as it sets itself up to be a major player in the emerging regulated US sports betting market. In New Jersey alone the company is affiliated with Monmouth Park racetrack, Ocean Casino Resort and Tropicana Atlantic City. As of this writing, William Hill is active in ten US States and controls a full 26 percent of the US sports wagering market. With the UK market mired in restrictions and hostility toward the gaming industry, playing by the rules in the US is even more important than ever for the company.