William Hill Review

When it comes to brand recognition amongst gambling companies, there are not many that can top that achieved by William Hill. Indeed, thanks to their widespread coverage of betting shops within the UK, brand recognition amongst the public in that country is 92%. William Hill are now looking to replicate that success on a worldwide level via the Internet, and thanks to a recent tie-up between William Hill and the casino software maker Playtech, they certainly seem to be well on their way! This tie up saw William Hill buy a 72% stake of the Playtech company and naturally as part of this deal William Hill moved their own online casino away from the Boss Media platform to that of Playtech's. As such, although we here at online-casinos.com were one of the first to review the old Boss Media –powered casino we thought we'd ditch that and bring our review bang up to date!

William Hill Casino, or 'Casino Club' as it is branded online is available via a no-download interface as well as via a download version. The no-download version is great for those on slower connections who just want a quick gamble and having loaded it up myself I was impressed to see a good 80% of the download games had been recreated in this no-download environment. However, for those that are intending to play on more than on occasion or simply who want to access the full range of games available I'd always suggest going for the download version.

Casinos always want to make playing as simple as possible and the new William Hill Casino Club is no exception. A couple of quick clicks is all that is needed to initiate the 363k download. This installer then spends a few further minutes downloading the remaining files required to run. However, the installer is pretty sophisticated as it actually just downloads the key files required to run the casino – further game files then continue to download and install whilst a customer is playing. This is pretty clever and means a player can be up and running within the shortest amount of time.

Registration is straight forward and the usual details of name, address and contact details are collected by the casino before a username is issued. As with all good casinos, a range of currencies can be used to play at William Hill including US Dollar, GB Pound and Euro. However, it should be noted that William Hill operates a no-US rule and so players from America are sadly not allowed to play here.

Once signed up and within the William Hill lobby, a player is presented with a menu that shows the available games and also provides a link to the cashier. The initial impression I got of this casino was pretty good – a clean interface is provided and a handy jackpot tickers shows immediately the big jackpots currently waiting to be won! A handy in-casino online support function also means a support representative can be contacted immediately.

As always, a trip to the cashier was the first order of the day and as is to be expected, a range of deposit options are available. Online wallets such as NeTeller, Moneybookers, Click2Pay and others are available as well as debit and credit card options. I had chosen to set my account up to play using UK Pounds and so I used my Visa debit card to make a £40 (approximately $80) purchase. This deposit took quite a while to process (around 3-4 minutes) although given the number of chargebacks that happen I guess behind the scenes William Hill were making sure my money was good!

A nice touch with this casino is that a user is able to state whether they want bonuses or not – indeed as soon as I had registered my account and signed in I was offered the chance to accept future bonuses or not. Bonuses are a great way to top up your balance but attached wagering conditions can be a drag, particularly if you get a nice win early on and want to cash in. Similarly, although many casinos allow you to have a bonus removed, this usually means contacting support and can be a real hassle. I actually decided to take this 'opt out option' and so after my deposit had £40 ready for action! However, generous bonuses are available here with a 150% sign-up bonus along with monthly 100% matches – good for those wanting extra bang for their buck!

Despite a range of game options being presented to me I am a sucker for Blackjack so immediately headed to this game. Although actually it was the slightly cooler 'Blackjack Switch' game I actually plumped for. This game seems a player's bet doubled at outset with two hands being dealt. However, a player can then switch cards from each hand over to make better hands. For example, if a player is dealt 10, 7 in one hand and 4, 10 in another a player could transform these totals of 17 and 14 in to totals of 20 and 11 but swopping over the 7 and 10. The only downside is that Blackjacks play 1-1 and a dealer 22 only results in a push for the player.

Every table game starts with a player selecting the betting range they want to game with - £0.50 to £30 per hand being the low-range table, £2-£100 being the mid-range table and £4-£200 being the high-end option. However, with some of the games (e.g. standard Blackjack) allowing play on up to 5 spots it still means a high-roller can bet £1000 per round (over $2000).

Once sitting at the table I was impressed with the clean look of the graphics and appropriate sound effects. Online gaming has come a long way since the late 90s when the first online casinos started appearing online! The gambling experience is also completely use-configurable with sound and graphic options available and even game-speed being something that can be set by the player.

This game, along with all others at William Hill, operates using a random number generator meaning no bias is given to any particularly number, spin, card or dice throw. Of course, this does mean that all decks are virtual so any sort of card-counting won't be too rewarding here! Thankfully though luck was on my hand to start with and a few starting hands of 10s and 11s saw my balance rising nicely to start. Of course, I always tend to find as soon as my bets rise in size those hands become 13s and 14s but I guess that's the way gambling goes! Having said that, the availability of real-live games means that players can actually play against real dealers if they choose to!

The same smooth game play was also noted at the other table games available, the range of which really is quite impressive. Along with standards such as Blackjack and Baccarat some more unusual games such as Tequila Poker and Wild Viking can also be found – it can't be said that this casino isn't innovative when it comes to game provision!

Sadly, the range of games is more limited when it comes to Video Poker. A decent selection is still available but many of the multi-line games found elsewhere are not available at William Hill. I find this odd as from a programming viewpoint I would have thought it would be relatively simply to expand a game to offer more play hands. Nevertheless, I still had fun playing Deuces Wild along with 50-hand Jacks or Better, this being one of the few multi-hand games that is playable.

In terms of presentation of these VP games, overall I'd state William Hill and Playtech have done a reasonable job. There is nothing to fault generally – game play is smooth, sounds effects fit in and the graphics are perfectly accetaple. I just feel that perhaps too much effort has been put in to recreating games like you find in Vegas or Atlantic City. Sadly in my opinion these land-based games never look great and Playtech could have done better to simply create their own, more fancy versions of these games! Nevertheless, these games as they stand still should satisfy a Video Poker player's lust for chasing for that Royal!

At this point my balance was starting to drop so I next went to check out the slot games. A decent selection of games is available and although not massively extensive, William Hill have clearly thought about the games they should offer to attract the majority of slot players. As such, a number of progressive games are offered along with standard mechanical-style slots as well as multi-line video slots. Many of these contain bonus features and the 50-line Thrill Seeker is a real draw with it's 'test of strength' and free-spin bonus rounds. 50 lines means you almost certainly win money on every spin too!

The Bermuda Triangle game and Crazy 7s game were also great fun and although sometimes I find these mechanical-style games a little dull, the bright graphics and sound effects certainly kept me hooked. Indeed, across all the slot games the presentation is pretty much faultless with great graphics and sound effects keeping a player hooked. The fact that bets can be as little as a penny or as big as £1000 on some games should certainly attract any slot player!

After all my play (and a cheeky further £35 deposit!) I ended up with £85 in my account, thanks largely to some hefty Blackjack bets coming off and as such decided to take my small winnings and scarper. Withdrawing is simple although a player has to enter an authorisation code which is emailed to them – this is to check that a player's contact details are correct. A pending period does exist but I am anticipating my funds to be sent back to my Visa card within 4 days. This is an acceptable waiting period.

Finally, I'll comment on William Hill support. As it to be expected from a big player like this, contacting support is easy and in-game chat is augmented by email and telephone assistance. My test chat to support online went fine and I was impressed to have a support person respond to my chat request literally within seconds of requesting it.

In conclusion, William Hill is certainly setting the bar high with their casino offering and although the Video Poker game range is somewhat limited, generally a good selection of games is available and these are pretty much all presented using great graphics, sound effects and smooth game play. The pending period for withdrawals is a little annoying but at least with a major player you know you'll be paid. Along with the sign-up bonuses and general customer care that William Hill offer this is certainly a casino that should be on your 'must try' list!

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