William Hill Smashes Remote Business Records in Grand National Test

At peak times, Hills successfully managed over 25,000 concurrent online users, accepted more than 300,000 individual bets and answered more than 112,000 telephone calls. "All in all, it was the biggest individual betting day in history, bar none," said David Hood, Director Of Public Relations at William Hill. "And whilst, the winner was a cracker for punters (Hedgehunter returned the 7-1 favourite), the overall result was good for us and it has undoubtedly assisted in the recruitment of tens of thousands of new customers."

The sheer volume of business and demand from concurrent users means Grand National Day has always provided the off-course betting industry with its biggest annual test. In the past it has often proved too demanding for the IT infrastructure of some bookmakers, including one or two of the leading high street brands.

However, through their continual investment in IT and telephone technology William Hill has long been the UK's number one telephone betting and Internet operator. On Saturday, the Ftse 100 quoted company successfully managed an 11.7% increase in the number of answered telephone calls and an incredible 71% increase in the number of bets taken on one of its dedicated internet sites, www.williamhillgrandnational.com.

At peak times Hills employs over 600 telephone customer service agents, spread among three call centres in Leeds and Sheffield. From an opening time of 8am on Saturday, right up to the start of the Grand National at 4.10, Hills successfully answered more than 112,000 individual telephone calls (an 11.7% increase on 2004), which is believed to be almost double the successful call acceptance of its competitors.

On the Internet, Hills also sets the benchmark for the industry by successfully handling well in excess of 300,000 individual bet transactions. To ensure that the main sportsbook website, www.williamhill.co.uk was not impacted upon by new account registrations, Hills operated a dedicated 'sister site', www.williamhillgrandnational.com to which new registrants were directed. This site alone, handled almost 30,000 (a 95% increase from 2004) in new account registrations, with a 71% increase in the number of bets placed.

"I have no doubt that the turnover for the day will be in excess of the industry forecast of £250 million," said Hood. "Undoubtedly the extra 25 minutes that bettors had before the National (the off-time was moved back to 4.10pm from 3.45pm because of the Royal Wedding) has contributed to the figures, but not withstanding that we would have broken all previous records anyway. Whilst I understand that some firms didn't handle the demand so well, we operated without a single hitch throughout the entire day and it is a tribute to all our staff and particularly the IT staff that we have set these new records."

Hills even received testimony to their success from the IT director of one of their rivals who wrote to Victor Kemeny (IT Director at William Hill), "Just a quick note to congratulate you on how quick your site was today (Grand National). We were monitoring all the major sites and we were up there with availability etc, but your site was by far the quickest and with no perceived slow down at all. As we all know the Grand National is a big test for the internet sites and your infrastructure /technology definitely shone through."

Hills are already betting on the 2006 John Smiths Grand National with Saturday's winner Hedgehunter quoted as the 16-1 favourite to repeat the feat again in 2006, whilst Forest Gunner the mount of galloping mother Carrie Ford is a 25-1 chance for next year.