Stand-Off at William Hill Online Continues

The stand-off at William Hill Online continues, after the company's Tel Aviv, Israel-based marketing staff walked off the job last week following the resignation of chief marketing officer Eyal Sanoff.

Some 185 Israeli employees of the William Hill-Playtech joint venture stopped work last Sunday in protest of Sanoff's resignation and rumors that William Hill Online will be moving its Tel Aviv operations to Gibraltar. Customer services staff in Bulgaria and The Philippines followed suit, bringing to around 300 the number of employees who have not turned up for work.

Sanoff, who is believed to be planning a lawsuit for breach of contract, quit on September 27 after the British bookmaker required him to provide day-to-day access to the Tel Aviv office's computer systems.

William Hill Online has also denied reports it intends to close its Tel Aviv office, but online casino publication eGaming Review has quoted sources as saying it stripped its Israeli managers of authority ahead of the move.

In a sign of just how significant this dispute is, William Hill CEO Ralph Topping cut short a vacation in Tanzania late last week to join William Hill Online CEO Henry Birch and COO Jim Mullen in Tel Aviv for emergency meetings.

Matters came to a head last Sunday when Birch and Mullen were locked out off the office - where email and telephone systems had been taken down - and redirected by staff to a local beach. They were so concerned at that stage that they reportedly hired former Israeli intelligence officials to investigate what was going on.

It remains unclear at present when staff will return to their jobs and whether there will be any consequences for online gambling customers of William Hill's online services, as not much news has emerged since Topping arrived in Israel on Friday. However, William Hill Online continues to function as normal.

One possible savior could be Playtech controlling shareholder Teddy Sagi, who - according to Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper - is believed by Topping to be the "one guy who could put an end to this with one phone call." Playtech, controlled by Sagi, owns 29 percent of William Hill Online and William Hill owns 71%.