William Hill Sacks 7 Managers in Tel Aviv

The problems over at William Hill Online (WHO) marketing department continue. It was announced today that seven members of senior management and several joiner staff members were fired following the disruption in the Tel Aviv office last week.

Apparently it all started in September when Chief Marketing Officer Eyal Sanoff resigned from WHO following the insistence of top managers to gain access to the computer systems in the Tel Aviv office.

The news of the resignation was kept quiet until last week when William Hill PLC. announced to the London Stock Exchange that Sanoff resigned.

Following the announcement most of the 185 staff members in Tel Aviv walked out and refused to go back to work, claiming that WHO is planning to close the Tel Aviv office and move operations to Gibraltar or back to the UK.

In addition over 100 employees in Bulgaria and the Philippines also walked out of their office in show of solidarity with the Tel Aviv office. WHO does not own the payment processions service that sits in the Philippines nor the call center that operates from Bulgaria, however WHO serves as one of their biggest clients and the walkout has undoubtedly caused disruption.

Top William Hill PLC. executives, including CEO Ralph Topping and WHO CEO Henry Birch, flew to Israel for talks, trying to calm matters and stated that they had no intention of relocating the business.

WHO is a joint venture where William Hill PLC. holds 71% and gaming software giant Playtech owns 29%. WHO began operating in 2009 and had the core of its marketing team and customer services team based in Tel Aviv.

On Friday Topping met with Playtech CEO Mor Weizer at the hope of finding a solution to this problem that many believe is nothing more than clever maneuvering by Playtech trying to get a higher price for the call option they will have in 2012 for Playtech’s share in WHO.

Topping had little to comment except to say that “I’m absolutely furious but cannot comment further.”