William Hill confirmed earlier this month it was pulling the plug on roughly one-third of its betting shops after the government cut the maximum stake permitted on fixed-odds terminals, with 4,500 at risk as a result. The Government cut the maximum stake allowed to £2 in April after complaints that the machines, which had previously let gamblers bet up to £100 every 20 seconds, were highly addictive and allowed players to rack up huge losses. The company has blamed the dramatic drop in revenue for its decision, with the closures meaning units currently occupied by William Hill betting shops will be vacant.

However, analysis undertaken by HARNESS Property Intelligence indicated the development could actually herald a new era.

A spokesman explained: “The data from HARNESS, which examined approximately 4,000 betting shops in England and Wales between 2010 and 2017, found that just 132 of these were closed and re-opened under a new use class.

“Over a third (47) and the majority of these were re-opened as shops, suggesting that the significant closure of 700 betting stores from William Hill could pave the way for retailers to begin occupying the high street again.

“The logic here is that the last seven years have proven that when betting shops have closed, their replacement has overwhelmingly been a new shop/high street retailer or whatever term suits – with over one-third being re-opened as a shop, rather than the likes of cafes or restaurants for example.

“Given that 700 (compared to 132 in the last seven years) will be closing in due course, the evidence suggests that many of these will give way to new shops.

“Further to that it’s widely believed that William Hill’s announcement, heavily driven by the recent changes to gambling laws, will be the catalyst for a wave of betting shop closures – thus providing further opportunities.”

Ben Mein, HARNESS’s CEO, told Express.co.uk: “The announcement represents a significant change in the overall presence of high street betting providers.

“Plans to enable increased high street diversity have been on the agenda for what feels like years now but it’s the introduction of the new gambling laws which look set to have the most profound impact in this sense.

“It will be interesting to see how the situation plays out in terms of replacing those stores but our data suggests that retailers, cafes and restaurants look set to receive the biggest boost.

“Some may also argue that the case for extending permitted development rights to incorporate other commercial uses has been given a new lease of life.”

A statement issued by William Hill on July 4 directly referred to the decision to cut the maximum stake for fixed-odds machines.

A spokesman said: “Since then the company has seen a significant fall in gaming machine revenues, in line with the guidance given when the Government’s decision was announced in May 2018.

“A large number of redundancies is anticipated with 4,500 colleagues at risk.

“The Group will look to apply voluntary redundancy and redeployment measures extensively and will be providing support to all colleagues throughout the process.

“Subject to the outcome of the consultation process, shop closures are likely to begin before the end of the year.”

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