William Hill trialling minimum bet guarantee on all ITV races

William Hill have introduced a minimum bet guarantee on televised horseracing, including online, in what the firm claims is a unique offer.

The firm has this week started trialling the bet guarantee and will lay customers to lose a minimum of £5,000 for win bets in betting shops on all races that are shown on ITV Racing, while online customers will be able to bet to win a minimum of £1,000 at the available price for those contests. Both offers will be available on the day of the race from 10am onwards.

Hills said prices would be available on all ITV races five days before, giving customers the chance to bet at early prices or have a guaranteed minimum bet on raceday.

They have, however, dropped their previous guarantee on Pricewise selections, saying they believed this new offer was fairer to customers.

Hills also said the offer did not mean they would have less competitive prices.

Group trading director Terry Pattinson said: "William Hill recognise that some customers are frustrated by not being able to get a sizeable bet on televised races, while we also want to ensure that early prices are there for our recreational customers and are not picked off by the few.

"We hope this offer appeals to both groups, and the bet guarantee will apply to customers who may have been restricted in the past."

A spokesman for the company urged any customers who had previously been restricted and who found problems accessing the offer to contact their customer services team.

Last week Ladbrokes extended their guarantee to lay bets to lose a minimum amount on horseracing in all their UK betting shops, bringing them into line with stablemate Coral.

The news was welcomed by Horseracing Bettors Forum chair Matt Bisogno.

He said: "The right to place a reasonable bet remains at the very heart of the aspirational nature of betting on racing, and Hills have set a solid precedent for those races which fall into the remit of the offer.

"We hope and trust that the provision of a minimum bet liability (MBL) will not impact on Hills' ability to continue to offer competitive pricing on their UK racing markets, and we further look forward to the extension of this guarantee to a wider range of UK horse races in due course.

"The adoption of MBL across all UK horse races is an important step towards achieving betting charter recognition from HBF, and we believe this announcement lays down a challenge to other operators to provide a similar level of service to their customers."

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