This has been a great year for William Hill, first, the acquisition of Playtech’s 29% shares in William Hill for £425 and now, William Hill marks a new milestone for the online gambling industry, as it will be the first online gambling firm to enter the FTSE100 since Party Gaming exited the list a few years back

This was announced by FTSE Group, which is a provider of indices of the stock market. It stated that following the merger between the Anglo-Swiss mining companies, Xstrata PLC and Glencore PLC, William Hill is going to be introduced to the FTSE 100 index list that includes the biggest shares in the Stock Exchange of London by the total capitalization of the market.

This announcement also came after William Hill has succeeded in completing the acquisition of the Australian operations of the rival firm, Sportingbet for a total of £459 million. This acquisition was a part of its expansion strategy on an international scale.

The only gambling company that succeeded and had the honor to be as part of the FTSE 100 was, as mentioned above, Party Gaming. It held its spot in the list until its capitalization fell low 3 years ago in 2010. Then it merged with Bwin to form Bwin.Party, which means that it ceased to exist on its own. The company, Bwin.Party now sits behind William Hill and the top 100 on the FTSE for market cap.