William Hill To Limit Football Betting

Bookmaker William Hill is set to stop offering odds on certain football matches next season due to concerns over suspicious betting patterns.

Spokesman Graham Sharpe said the company may consider the move to prevent it becoming a victim of suspicious betting patterns.

Industry insiders claim end-of-season matches with little at stake appear to be most vulnerable.

In April, a leading Irish bookmaker adopted a policy for suspending bets on this type of match. Paddy Power suspended betting on virtually all end-of-season games in the Irish football league.

Sharpe stated that William Hill was considering a similar policy for certain matches in England next season.

‘This country always had a reputation for the integrity of the game… but if we start to feel all is not well with every game you may well end up with a situation where bookmakers will start to be selective about some of the matches they decide to bet on and may restrict people from betting on certain games.’

William Hill stopped taking bets on one game in the 2007-2008 season and informed the football authorities it had suspicions about betting patterns, although the match was subsequently cleared by the Football Association.