William Hill Overview
William Hill is a renowned name in British gambling history, a well respected online site due to a long-lasting reputation. They have been in business since 1934. Part of the Cryptologic network, they offer poker, casino and sports betting; all regulated and licensed by the UK government. The games are offered in various currencies and their deposit options are very easy to use. Even though most of their players are European, they are open to US players. They are a top 100 company traded on the London Stock Exchange. Their tutorial on how to play with “fun” money is pretty easy and it allows beginners to really understand how the game of poker is played.
It has easy to withdraw and deposit methods (in different currencies), with a great feature that allows players to use the chain’s betting shops as banks for withdrawing from or depositing into your account. The software is easy to use and the games offered are standard: Texas Hold’Em, Omaha, Seven-Card Stud and Tournaments. It is a great site for beginners, due to the simplicity in design. However, one big flaw is that William Hill poker site barely reaches critical mass on weekdays, which limits action.
Established in Europe and as part of the London Stock market, William Hill carries on their banking and financial affairs according to generally accepted international standards, that even include, company auditing. William Hill adheres to laws applicable to transaction reporting and anti-money laundering regulations and laws. They operate a ‘No Flop No Drop’ policy, which is not taking rake from hands that do not reach the flop.
The Cryptological network group is widely respected and shares their platform (software as well as players) with some other poker rooms such as InterPoker. They are very aware of responsible gambling and even have a feature to limit the amount per deposit to prevent gambling addicts from re-depositing. Since they have issues with traffic, not all games are offered at peak times.
William Hill is a room on the Cryptologic network, along with other popular online poker rooms such as Littlewoods Poker, Classic Poker and Bet Safe Poker.
William Hill Game Features
Games such as 7 Card Stud, Omaha High and Omaha High/Low, are all offered. Most traffic is heavily concentrated on the Texas Hold’em ring games and tournaments.
This poker site offers great promotions, including a pay per hour bonus, which gives new players a nice boost. Also they offer from time to time reload bonuses. SNG’s are available starting at one euro and are populated, although the lower r levels are short chip stacked (1,000 chips instead of an industry standard 1,500).
They offer interesting bonuses: reload bonuses, pay per hour bonus, monthly bonus. William Hill also offers payments for people who are required to start off new games. There is an interesting bad beat bonus paid to any ringer player that loses with 4 jacks or higher (using a pair in Hold’em or 2 down cards in Stud or Omaha). Lower limits seem to be slightly tougher than the mainstream US sites. There is less “fish” around the low limit tables.
Tables have a maximum of 6 players, which can be frustrating for players that prefer full ring action. Also to achieve critical mass, they share platforms with all the other sites on the Cryptologic Network such as Interpoker which means players are shared as well. Site traffic on weekdays does drop a bit.
William Hill Software Features
The William Hill poker site is simple to use. The interface is well thought out with an easy to use the navigation bar. The download is one of the fast and hassle free. They will even send you a free installation software CD if you prefer.
They do not offer disconnection protection so players that are disconnected are checked/folded by default. In general, the site’s software is easy to use, offering decent functionality and performance but no outstanding features. They offer animation options, automatic hand mucks and an authentic British dealer’s voice, with 4 color decks. The layout is very simple, with buttons placed on the obvious place, which makes it hard to make betting amount mistakes by accident. The flow of the deck is just right and the Crypto software supports Poker Tracker and Gametime+ software. The stats button can be very useful because it shows how many flops you’ve seen, you’ve folded, won and general info about your action during the session.
The lobby will not display info on players, but rather will let you know the stats about each table. The waiting list function is useful since it informs you that a specific table has cleared or offers other action options with a determined number of players and the table’s limit as well. Hand histories can be called up, whenever you want; however the limited software seems to decide which ones to show, and how many you get to see.
William Hill poker site is SSL protected. When you log in the padlock appears for a few seconds and then disappears. This is a switch to SSL to encrypt and send your username and password and verify them. Once confirmed, the site loses the padlock to allow a faster site for browsing, as this is essential to the business. Also, when you reach the deposit or withdrawal pages on the site, once again, the padlock will appear for the time necessary to encrypt and send your data. No full card details are ever sent with deposits or withdrawals as they are stored on their system already and details of each transaction are fully encrypted before being sent. They are also Thawte certificate (second largest certification authority).
William Hill Support
Support at William Hill is advertised as a three way option: via email, live chat and telephone. However, the live chat has been disabled. Telephone is not toll-free and can be charged depending on the country where you are calling from. Nevertheless, e-mail works relatively fast and effectively.
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