William Hill chief executive on why SPFL is undervalued in market

The Herald Scotland

28-05-2025

'That was a real experience,' he tells Herald Sport. 'I would rather have been one of the Swedish players who played for Celtic or Rangers, picking up the trophy than presenting it.
'But that was as close as I can come and it was a privilege. I can't even imagine how it must be to go out there every week on the pitch in front of 60,000 supporters. The experience was like, 'Okay, this must be how it feels to be a player.…'
A promising No.10 with hometown team Orebro SK, he watched Gordon Strachan score the winner against Sweden in September 1980 and resolved to model his game on Scotland's playmaker.
'Until I was 18 years old my life was all football, nothing else,' he says. 'We won the Swedish championship at junior level and I was promoted to the senior squad at Orebro under Roy Hodgson when we were in the Swedish second division. He was a demanding coach and when he moved to Malmo he was replaced by a Scotsman, Stuart Baxter.'
Badly twisting an ankle at school, hopes of first team football in the Swedish Allsvenskan were cut short by knee surgery. He completed a bachelor's degree in business administration at the University of Gothenburg before moving to the UK in 1990 to pursue a master's degree in international accounting and finance at the London School of Economics.
He became chief executive of William Hill two years ago, admitting ruefully: 'I am probably doing better now than I would have done as a footballer.'
Last summer William Hill agreed a record five-year agreement with the SPFL to replace cinch as title sponsors, the Swede excited by the potential of a tie-up he saw as a 'perfect fit'.
Livingston's gutsy fightback in the Premiership play-off win over Ross County brought the first year of the agreement to a mutually beneficial end.
On top of title wins for Celtic, Falkirk, Arbroath and Peterhead, the battle for third place and European spots went to the wire, Aberdeen's Scottish Cup triumph pipped Hibernian to automatic qualification for the European group stages, and the Championship saw Falkirk survive a late wobble.
'When it was presented to me as an opportunity to become a true supporter and a sponsor of Scottish football I thought it was a fantastic proposition,' adds the Swede.
'For us it was very clear that it was a perfect fit. 'The intensity, the Old Firm rivalry, the stories all through the leagues, it is fantastic entertainment.
'And if you look at the per capita attendance at games it is the No.1 sport. We took it on and it is by far our biggest sponsorship for the company as a whole.
'We are one year in now and when we got the opportunity on the table I was struck by the passion, the intensity, the relentless atmosphere that everyone told me about.
'So for us to be able to be true supporters of Scottish football via sponsorship of the four divisions and be the ones who present the trophy is amazing.
Evoke CEO Per Widerstrom and Murdoch MacLennan (Image: SNS Group)
'It's the most important partnership we have and we are very happy with the commercial impact of the first year. We see that our customers have increased in number and also that the stake, in relative terms when it comes to Scottish football, has increased.'
Barry Hearn once described the game in Scotland as 'undersold' and 'self pitying', highlighting a perceived lack of ambition and investment. Charged with reaching annual revenue of £50 million by 2029, the William Hill deal is key to the SPFL hitting the target set by clubs.
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On top of financial support, William Hill agreed to tackle the perception amongst supporters of a game under-promoted and under-appreciated by launching a weekly SPFL preview show.
Streamed on YouTube every Friday, the Warm-Up takes a look at the issues affecting the Premiership, Championship, League One and League Two, feeding the appetite for stories from a league which – regardless of the quality on the pitch – continues to attract the highest per capita attendances in Europe.
'We had an opportunity with Scottish football and recognised that it could be promoted more,' Widerstrom explained. 'We have an opportunity here to stand out above our competitors.
'We do that by going above and beyond the Premiership. As an ex-footballer I think it's important than we show our commitment beyond the top teams.
'We do the Warm Up programme and try to promote and support the four leagues and the great guests we have. I am very happy with the
tie up we have with Scottish football.
'And, you know what? It's just the start. We have learned so much from the first year and we are constantly asking, 'What can we do better? What do we need to tweak?'.'
The issue of gambling sponsorship in football remains contentious and divisive. English Premier League teams have voluntarily agreed to ditch gambling sponsors from the front of their shirts in order to tackle addiction issues amongst supporters in the UK.
Celtic and Rangers – Scotland's biggest clubs – maintain shirt betting tie-ups while the sale of league naming rights to one of the biggest bookmaking firms in the country drew negative scrutiny from politicians.
'Ultimately there should always be a good balance,' acknowledges Widerstrom. 'A balance in terms of how much people gamble and how much they bet and how much they can afford.
'And that they do it in a reasonable way. That's why, when we focus in on Scottish football it's a balance between giving people good offers and – at the same time – playing safely.'
To promote safe and responsible betting, William Hill and the SPFL partnered with EPIC Global Solutions, a consultancy focused of gambling harm prevention.
Promoting awareness amongst players, staff and supporters EPIC has delivered education workshops to move of the 42 senior clubs and offered sessions to supporter and community trust groups.
'EPIC is a genuine company, the people there have real life experiences,' Widerstrom says. 'And we have had their representatives broadcasting speeches and presentations to all of our employees and telling their life stories to give us the perspective we need. As a CEO I need to know what the sessions involve so I have taken part in them myself. And then we need to understand and act on what they tell us.
'We have had 800 players go through the programme and if you include some of the important staff then it's almost a thousand.
'I think over this first year 37 teams have gone through it. And when we launched it we also went to the fans in the communities.
'There are always two sides to the coin and it is important that we, as an operator, be fully aware of our responsibilities to help people gamble safely.'