- William Hill offers punters free bets for signing up new members to betting site
- They would get $150 in bonus bets and the new gambler would get $200
- But the new punter had to be male, according to the email promotion
- Gender policy slammed as ‘beyond unacceptable’ by the industry peak body
Bookmaker William Hill has been accused of sexism for offering bonus bets to new gamblers – but only if they are male.
The promotion sent to its mailing list last week offered $150 to any member who convinced a friend to sign up, but specified it was for ‘male clients only’.
Billed as an ‘exclusive referral promotion’, punters got $200 if they were referred and created an account and deposited $50.
William Hill accused of sexism for offering $150 bonus bets to punters who get new gamblers to sign up to the bookmaking giant – but only if they are male
The person who referred them would in turn receive $150 in bonus bets, described as a ‘great way to receive some bonus money for the Melbourne Cup weekend’.
The gender requirement didn’t appear in the terms and conditions and its inclusion in the email was understood to be decision of an individual employee.
Bookies like William Hill are plagued by punters signing up with wives, girlfriends, mothers and sisters to collect free bets from referrals.
Billed as an ‘exclusive referral promotion’, punters got $200 if they were referred and created an account and deposited $50
The men-only policy was likely an attempt to prevent such practices, though would be hard to police in practice.
The promotion was slammed by industry peak body Responsible Wagering Australia as ‘beyond unacceptable’, in a statement to the Daily Telegraph.
It said William Hill, run by gambling mogul Tom Waterhouse after he sold his self-named business to the British giant in 2013, was the only agency not to sign up to its code of conduct.
The promotion was slammed by industry peak body Responsible Wagering Australia as ‘beyond unacceptable’