William Hill Support Staff Walk Out

[crowngate]

Thanks GFPC, they are hosted by affutd. Got quite a few pages with their banners on.

[GFPC]

Yeah its really a shame. This is one of the reasons why we host banners. Although it makes us work harder to change them all the time.

Actually thank you for posting that. I just realized one of our sites has the same issue!

They are coming down for me!

Hope it works out for you mate.

[Chips]

R-I-P AffUTD. Reckon how it feels to be the screwed rather than the screwee???

[alexpratt]

They have platinum at LAC so I need to get hold of them ASAP - My personal main contact isn't working there anymore though....Anyone have a contact that is working?

[mmmoo]

The AffUTD hosted banners are now back on my site, I wonder if this means they are back in business?

[vinism]

Here's the story snooptodd yesterday on the walk out.

WILLIAM HILL'S ISRAELI EMPLOYEES OFFERED MORE PAY TO RETURN TO WORK

19 October 2011
By Aaron Todd

Two days after walking out of their offices, employees at William Hill's Tel Aviv operations have been told that they will receive an extra month's pay in November and are guaranteed at least six months notice or the equivalent pay in severance should their jobs be eliminated if they return to work on Sunday.

William Hill Chief Executive Henry Birch reportedly made the offer in an e-mail leaked to several media outlets. Most of the marketing employees, many of whom work in affiliate operations for the Affiliates United Network, have not returned to work to date and are reportedly concerned that William Hill is planning on closing the Tel Aviv office and moving to Gibraltar.

"We are committed to Israel and have no intention to close the office at any time," Birch wrote in the e-mail to employees. "I know some people wanted a commitment that their jobs were 'safe' until a certain date. If I give a date, people will assume that at that date we will close the office - which would not be the case."

Yesterday, William Hill confirmed that Eyal Sanoff, the chief marketing officer of the online team in Tel Aviv, resigned on September 27.

"Several other senior managers in Tel Aviv are now subject to disciplinary actions in relation to the disruption this week within the marketing businesses in Tel Aviv, and in the customer service and back office operations in Manila and Bulgaria," reads a press release.

"Senior William Hill Online management are currently on the ground in Tel Aviv working through these issues, although it should be noted that the office in Tel Aviv will be closed ... through to early next week, as normal, through the Jewish holiday period," added the company in its press release.

Playtech, William Hill's online software provider and a minority shareholder in William Hill Online, stated that it is "in dialogue with the William Hill group regarding these operational issues" and that further updates would be provided as developments warrant.

[universal4]

This is good news and I hope that those in the offices affected feel more comfortable about their positions now.

An extra month's pay should be quite an incentive to go back to work also.

Rick
Universal4

[webetting]

Email rec from Aff-Utd

Dear Partner,

No doubt you may have seen a number of news articles this week in the press and online describing the walkout of staff in our affiliate marketing centre in Israel and other support locations in Bulgaria and Manila.


This has caused some disruption, as you may well imagine, and you may find that your links to our sites are not currently working.


We will update you as soon as we are satisfied that all links are fully operational again.


I can offer you the following assurances during this period of disruption:

1. All of your existing players, and any new players referred to any of the William Hill Online Brands will, and continues to, be recorded.
2. AffUtd.com is fully operational and you will continue to have access to all the traffic and player stats, though please note there may be some instances of downtime to the AffUtd.com website while we work through this disruption.

Whilst we iron out some of the operational challenges we are currently facing some affiliates may experience delays in payments, but know this:


William Hill Online will honour all payments due to affiliates and advertisers.

William Hill has been in business for 70 years with an online player base in excess of 1 million users. We honour our financial commitments. Claiming anything to the contrary is simply untrue and laced with malice.

Unfortunately, there are some who will attempt to take advantage of our current situation. This is to be expected as we are the leading online gambling company in Europe.


If you receive any unsolicited communication regarding William Hill Online, please let us know. We will at all times maintain your strictest confidence.


Affiliates United will continue to operate from Israel, as it has the past two years - we have no intention to renege on our commitment to our staff.


We value your continued promotion of the William Hill Online brands and assure you of our continued support and loyalty.


Yours Sincerely


Henry Birch

CEO
William Hill Online / Affiliates United

[FictionNet]

crowngate, your banners are now working. My links have started to work again.

[theGman]

I am finding this situation to be quite incredible and the fact that everyone is not making more of a fuss astounds me . I might be a bit conspiracy minded , but if William Hill are not able to access their own Data - the reason for the walkaout as is being reported in some quarters

xhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8839599/William-Hill-hires-former-Israeli-intelligence-officers-to-regain-control-of-Israel-joint-venture.html

Then how do we know what shenanigans have gone on in Israel with that Cpays bunch in charge of running things. I dont have a good feeling re this - especially considering the folks involved. I do feel for William Hill and hope that they have learnt a lesson re this.

[mike65]

I have a friend who used to work for William Hill. I am not surprised now that he left them for the same reasons: low salary and extensive working hours.

[grem]

Can someone confirm if links do or don't work?

[JackTenSuited]

mine are working fine, stats dont seem to be updating though

[theGman]

An excellent article from Tom Galanis - i couldnt have put it better so i wont try

Check it out here xhttp://tomgalanis.com/2011/10/21/good-ol-william-hill-online/

[davemerry]

Thanks for that G Man, good read so far.

Does anyone know what he is referring to in point 3? "Many affiliates would claim to know precisely what I’m not inclined to publicly state here…"

If someone could PM me any knowledge if they don't want to share it I'd be grateful.

I actually enjoy working with AffUtd, just out of interest...

[crowngate]

crowngate, your banners are now working. My links have started to work again.

Cheers, i had over a hundred pages that weren't on my page master with WH banners, removed them now anyways. To think, a week ago i had a really sweet deal agreed with AffUtd, was just waiting for confirmation looks like this won't be happening now.

[tomgalanis]

Dave - give me a shout over Skype. PS - it's been nice knowing everyone

[grem]

I think I understand what Tom might mean.

Regardless many threads on late payments from euro partners and affiliates united. Can anyone from these companies explain?

[JackTenSuited]

I hope this shakes up the support at William Hill, I was on there live chat last week trying to get hold of their phsyical address for my accounts, the person on the other end not only couldn't understand why I would need such 'sensitive information' but refused to give me any sort of physical address related to william hill or Aff Utd :s

[GPWA Aaron]

So we thought it might be useful to have a Cliff's Notes post that details what might be going on at William Hill Online and Affiliates United, based on the reports that we've been hearing and reading.

Here's a quick timeline.

• September 27: Eyal Sanoff, the chief marketing officer of the online team in Tel Aviv, resigned (more on him below).

• October 16: Approximately 180 marketing staff walked out of the Tel Aviv office. Employees did not return to work before the start of Jewish holidays, dates for which the office would have been closed anyway. The employees were reportedly concerned that William Hill was planning on closing the Tel Aviv office and moving operations to Gibraltar. William Hill employees in Bulgaria and the Philippines appear to have walked out as well.

• Ralph Topping, William Hill's chief executive, flew to Israel to attempt to resolve the situation. When he arrived, he found the office shuttered. He reportedly offered staff an extra month's pay to return to work, as well as a guarantee of six months notice or the equivalent pay in severance should employees lose their jobs for any reason other than bad performance.

• On Oct. 20, the Telegraph reported that Sanoff left the company in a dispute over access to computer systems in the Tel Aviv offices. Apparently, William Hill did not have access to these systems and told Sanoff to give them access. "After he allegedly refused to comply for several months, it gave him a September 30 deadline," reported the Telegraph. "Three days before, he quit, alleging 'constructive dismissal'. The bookie denies the claim."

The story in the Telegraph points to a real rift between William Hill and Playtech, which in addition to being WHO's software provider, has a 29 percent ownership stake. A Telegraph source alleged that Sanoff offered to give employees jobs in a new business and that he had told WHO chief operating officer Jim Mullen that he was working for William Hill "to protect (Playtech founder) Teddy Sagi's interests." Topping told the Telegraph "If there's one guy who could put an end to this with one phone call it's Teddy Sagi."

This leads to a few interesting questions, most of which have been brought up by Tom Galanis. Did William Hill really not have access to their own computing systems and online data? And why wouldn't the Tel Aviv office not allow William Hill access to this information?

Stay tuned; as vinism said earlier today in his Twitter feed, "If you're looking for the best soap opera in online gambling right now, the William Hill saga is the runaway winner."