William Hill is to migrate its web site to a recently-installed next-generation IT infrastructure to improve its online betting services and offer new products.
The bookmaker has replaced legacy systems with a new infrastructure operating on HP-UX servers, an Oracle database, BEA Weblogic and Java.
IT director Victor Kemeny says the firm will start a phased migration, to be completed in the next 12 months, to ensure customers are not inconvenienced.
‘Our back-office systems were based on old technology that could not support us in the future,’ he said. ‘Now we can begin migrating the internet betting services to offer improved navigation and functions.’
Kemeny says the migration will make William Hill more agile and enable it to offer new services such as rapid betting. Odds can be changed quickly so gamblers can bet on a single, brief event, such as the odds on a penalty being scored.
Using Java will provide more flexibility because it will be able to buy components rather than develop them from scratch.
‘Our servers are also scalable so we can add more boxes when we need more power,’ said Kemeny. ‘This could include increasing power for one-day events such as the Grand National.’
William Hill took its first online bet in 1998, but has since taken more than 300,000 online and telephone bets in a single day as gamblers bet on the Grand National.
The company is surveying its customers to determine which web site functions they like.
AMR Research analyst Nigel Montgomery says a phased migration is sensible because the task is a complex one.
‘Much will depend on the structure of William Hill’s web site,’ he said. ‘It may choose to migrate different betting services at different times.’
Montgomery says the new infrastructure represents a services-oriented architecture approach, which is more robust, easier to maintain, and allows William Hill to deliver new products quickly.
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