EiG 2017: Bill South, group director of security and community affairs, William Hill

William Hill group director of security and community affairs Bill South has made the case for transparency in the industry as a way to ensure effective regulation.

Speaking at Clarion Gaming’s EiG Expo in Berlin last month, he said integrity went hand in hand with building a sustainable business model. “It’s critical that integrity is something you do as well as talk about,” he said.

“Integrity in sports betting really revolves around having a legislation that’s enabling, so it allows the sport to take place, it allows to operator to offer those markets on it but with the right responsibility.

“So that irregular or suspicious betting patterns, for example, are reported, a regulator can void bets if they’re not happy with them, law enforcement can take the data in useable form if they wish to investigate it, and sport are able to conduct, and license and police their own sport in an effective way”.

South highlighted the vital nature of compliance among start up igaming businesses, likening it to the way that healthy and safety had become so central to the everyday running of respectable modern businesses.

“If you’re a start-up business and you start to do well, and you decide to either acquire another business or merge with a business, the level of due diligence will start and finish with your governance and your compliance. And if it doesn’t stand scrutiny, then you won’t flourish as a business,” he warned.