Media reports today suggest that William Hill has dismissed seven of its senior managers as well as junior staff over an alleged plan to set up a rival business. The company chief executive, Ralph Topping, has spent the past four days trying to get things back to normal at the Tel Aviv office of William Hill Online (WHO), which is majority owned by the UK bookmaker in the joint venture with Playtech plc.

About 180 employees walked out of the Tel Aviv office on Oct. 16 over concern that the company was seeking to transfer the functions to the U.K. or Gibraltar. In addition 100 employees in the WHO Bulgarian centre walked out, and in Manila, 300 Playtech workers involved with WHO activities also walked off the job. It is not sure whether staff were aware of the alleged plans to start a new rival business operation but it appears that there was some cover up.

Eyal Sanoff the chief marketing officer of the U.K. bookmaker’s William Hill Online marketing team in Tel Aviv reportedly resigned after William Hill told him to provide day-to-day access to the computer systems of the Tel Aviv operation. Topping had supposedly become suspicious when the Tel Aviv office denied the bookie access to its computer systems. Topping ordered the hiring of former Israeli intelligence officers, also finding in the process that a rabbi, a fish feeder and a hairdresser were on the books as well as payments for table-tennis coaching.

For several months he allegedly refused to comply, and the company gave him a September 30 deadline. Three days before that deadline expired, Sanoff quit, leaving the issue open to speculation that all was not as it should be in Tel Aviv.

"Last Sunday matters came to a head when Henry Birch, WHO's chief executive, and Jim Mullen, its chief operating officer, visited Tel Aviv only to find staff had been redirected to a local beach," media reports suggest.

"When Mr Mullen visited the Tel Aviv office, he was locked out. Its email and telephone systems were also taken down,"

Henry Birch, WHO's chief executive, and Jim Mullen, its chief operating officer, will be based in Tel Aviv for the next few months, whilst Topping, who returned to the UK for a board meeting on Tuesday, would only say: "I'm absolutely furious but cannot comment further."