William Hill is one of the three largest betting shop operators in Great Britain and the oldest of the national brands still trading under its founder’s name. This page sets out what we know about its shops from the company’s own published data, together with the regulatory and company facts that a customer might reasonably want to check.
Shops at a glance
| Shops listed on BookieFinder | 1,021 |
| England | 821 |
| Scotland | 176 |
| Wales | 24 |
| Shops with published opening hours | 1,021 (100%) |
| Shops open on Sunday | 1,021 |
| Most common weekday hours | 08:30 to 22:00 (233 shops) |
| Most common Saturday hours | 08:00 to 22:00 (228 shops) |
| Most common Sunday hours | 09:00 to 22:00 (85 shops) |
| Source | William Hill shop locator, collected 14 September 2026 |
Our William Hill data comes directly from the company’s own shop locator, which publishes an address, telephone number, seven-day opening hours and a list of facilities for every shop. We collected all 1,021 shops it listed on 14 September 2026. One further shop appeared in the source without a postcode or hours and is not included. William Hill’s locator does not list shops in Northern Ireland.
Where the shops are
William Hill’s shops are spread across Great Britain but concentrate in the large cities. The ten places with the most shops in our data are:
| Town or city | Shops |
| London | 136 |
| Liverpool | 67 |
| Glasgow | 63 |
| Birmingham | 39 |
| Manchester | 33 |
| Leeds | 23 |
| Sheffield | 18 |
| Edinburgh | 17 |
| Hull | 13 |
| Blackpool | 10 |
Liverpool and Glasgow stand out: between them they hold more William Hill shops than Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds combined. Use the shop finder to search by postcode, or browse the town pages linked above.
Opening hours
William Hill shops keep long hours by high street standards. Of the 1,021 shops, 728 (71%) close at 22:00 on weekdays, and a further 171 close at 21:30. Opening times are more varied: 351 shops open at 09:00, 293 at 08:30 and 239 at 08:00, with a small number opening as early as 07:30 for the overseas racing and early football.
Every William Hill shop in our data is listed as open on Sunday. Sunday hours are shorter and less uniform than weekdays: the most common patterns are 09:00 to 22:00 (85 shops), 09:00 to 20:00 (53 shops) and 10:00 to 20:00 (51 shops). If you are planning a Sunday visit, check the individual shop page rather than assuming.
These figures describe the standard hours the company publishes. They do not include bank holiday or special-event hours, which William Hill does not publish in its locator. Christmas Day is the one day of the year on which betting shops in Great Britain are not permitted to open.
Facilities
The locator lists facilities for each shop. In our data, 964 shops are listed as having William Hill’s “New Vegas” gaming machines, 454 as offering free Wi-Fi, and 376 as offering “Best Odds Guaranteed” on horse racing. A small number (19) list a “WH Plus” terminal, the company’s in-shop self-service betting point linked to its loyalty scheme. Where a shop page shows facilities, they are the company’s own description and we have not checked them in person.
Licence and regulation
William Hill’s betting shops are operated by William Hill Organization Limited, which holds Gambling Commission account number 2752. Its non-remote general betting licence has been active since 1 January 2009, the first date on which licences under the Gambling Act 2005 took effect. The company’s registered head office is at 1 Bedford Avenue, London WC1B 3AU.
In March 2023 the Gambling Commission concluded a regulatory review of William Hill Organization Limited covering the period from January 2020 to October 2021. It found failings in the company’s anti-money-laundering and safer-gambling processes in its shops. The company made a payment of £2,999,850 in lieu of a financial penalty and accepted additional licence conditions. The full public statement is on the Gambling Commission’s website. We include this because a customer deciding where to bet is entitled to know it, not as a judgement on the company today.
Ownership and history
The business was founded by William Hill in 1934, originally taking bets by post and telephone, since betting shops were not legal in Britain until 1961. Its first shops came with the purchase of Jack Swift’s London business in 1966. Over the following decades it passed through several owners, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2002, and bought 624 shops from Stanley Leisure in 2005.
Two events shaped the current shop estate. In April 2019 the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals was cut from £100 to £2, and William Hill announced in July 2019 that it would close around 700 shops as a result. A further 119 closures followed in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. The estate has since settled at a little over 1,000 shops.
In April 2021 William Hill was bought by Caesars Entertainment of the United States, which wanted its American operations. Caesars sold the UK and European business, including all the shops, to 888 Holdings in July 2022. 888 Holdings renamed itself evoke plc in 2024, and William Hill’s shops trade today as part of that group.
Online
William Hill also operates a large online sportsbook and casino at williamhill.com under a separate remote licence (Gambling Commission account 39225). BookieFinder’s focus is the shops; this profile does not review the website or its products. Any offers we list for William Hill appear on our offers pages, clearly marked as commercial content and with their conditions.
Corrections
If a William Hill shop near you has moved, closed or changed its hours, please use the report link on that shop’s page. We check reports against the company’s own data and update the page with the date of the change. Read more about how we verify shop data.
Data collected 14 September 2026. Profile last reviewed 21 September 2026.