William Hill has reached out to those who have withdrawn their winnings and asked them to make a refund to them. William Hill operator’s problem took place in the Jackpot Drop opt-in pool where players were misled to think that they had won the jackpot.
A lot of them posted on social media about their jackpot winnings (that were a lie). The X screenshots that were going around showed one account with a balance of £236,000 while another one displayed £142,000. Other posts also revealed large winnings temporarily credited and later corrected manually. The affected accounts were then frozen for review, and Jackpot Drop was briefly taken down from the site.
William Hill is now making efforts to recover the money withdrawn during the period of time that the mistakenly credited accounts were active before they were locked. William Hill Online informed its customers about their bank account details, i.e. sort codes and account numbers, as well as it made the formal request to return funds.
The correspondence read:
During a routine review of platform activity, we identified an issue affecting the Jackpot Drop game which resulted in incorrect sums being credited to players’ balances and withdrawals being processed incorrectly. As a consequence of this issue, funds were incorrectly credited and, in some cases, withdrawn from a number of customer accounts, including yours, that were not generated through valid or properly functioning gameplay. Our review has confirmed that certain balances credited to your account and subsequently withdrawn did not arise from valid gameplay and are attributable to the issue affecting the Jackpot Drop game.
William Hill states in its Terms and Conditions that clause 8 authorizes the company to cancel transactions, adjust account balances, and get back any money that may have been wrongly paid out due to a technical glitch or game error.
As a sign of goodwill, the bookmaker invited its customers to keep 11% of the sums withdrawn. However, it is still not known whether this is a general rule for all clients or if it varies according to the amount withdrawn. Customers are required to return the money within a period of three days along with a signed settlement agreement to formally end the dispute.
A spokesperson said:
During a routine review of platform activity, we identified an issue affecting the Jackpot Drop game which temporarily resulted in incorrect sums being credited to players’ balances and withdrawals being processed incorrectly. Whilst we quickly identified and resolved this issue, for a short period of time funds were erroneously credited to some customer accounts that were not correctly generated through valid or properly functioning gameplay. We have contacted relevant customers to clarify the issue, and are in the process of retrieving the funds in line with our standard terms and conditions. We have been grateful for our customers’ understanding on this matter.
The mistake might turn out to be very harmful for William Hill and could even cause a loss for eviction if a large portion of the users’ funds is returned or retained through goodwill agreements. Angry customers have threatened to resort to legal action if they want to keep their winnings as they have understood, which could result in a lengthy dispute. Terms and conditions are most likely to be a deciding factor if the case gets complicated.
Similar disputes have already occurred in the UK. The High Court ruled in 2021 that Betfred had to award the player the £1.7 million jackpot he won, although the bookmaker had initially refused the payment claiming that the game was defective. Similarly, in March 2025, a judge allowed a gardener to keep a £1 million jackpot after Paddy Power had disputed it due to a computer error.
Even if the case does not get to the court, evocation might still be financially severely impacted – either by totally unreturned withdrawals, or by partially deducted amounts under goodwill agreements.
