Open letter to William Hill

This is a letter of complaint that will deal with 3 things;

1 - The comments with racist innuendo made on several occasions by one person (who will remain unnamed as he/she is not a direct employee of William Hill or William Hill radio. Hereafter this person will be called KK in this text) on podcasts over the years.

2 - The way that William Hill inplayradio representatives Lee Phelps and David Kelner through their actions and words condone the usage of comments with racist innuendo.

3 - The threats, badmouthing and other actions by Mr Phelps and Mr kelner towards me when I informed them of my disapproval of the usage of comments with racist innuendo.


I have been a listener of William Hill radio for almost 20 years. I started listening to the horse radio and the evening greyhound service that was available at the time. When Inplayradio started I also became a regular listener to that channel. Over the years I have contributed with tips, information, banter etc. through emails and tweets. I have also sent the guys presents and treats thanking them for helping me win money and I also had the King of Spring competition for a few years on the inplayradio's Saturday afternoon shows. I have regularly listened to different podcasts that the radio service have produced.
Through all the years I have listened William Hill radio have used a person to give tips (KK). Since a few years ago he is one of the "experts" on one of the weekly podcasts. I have enjoyed listening to KK and have won money following his ideas, especially when he was an "expert" in something else than he is now. I have noticed that KK have often used the features or nationality of players, managers etc. when he tries to make jokes. Some of the time (not always) he goes to far and steps over the line and sometimes he is so far over the line that a non regular listener surely would think that KK is a racist and/or a bigot.

A few months ago KK made a comment about a player with foreign nationality and I reacted. This was not the first time these kind of comments were made but now I had had enough. I stated that I would now boycott Inplayradio for a while and never again listen to that podcast.
When writing on Twitter about this and my reasons for the boycott I received personal messages from Lee Phelps, writing under the William Hill Inplayradio name, so he was acting as an official representative of the radio station, that was quite clear.
Mr Phelps defended the remarks that KK had made by claiming that that is just the way KK talks and that he has used similar demeaning remarks about other persons and typically Mr Phelps mentioned two British persons just to show that the comments were not racial. The comments made by KK about this player were worse than a footballer made back in 2013 about the same player and those remarks were called racist by the English media.
Mr Phelps also continued by threatening me that William Hill would take action if I continued calling the comments and KK racist.

So instead of realizing that comments made by KK could seem racist and/or inappropriate by listeners, Mr Phelps choose to attack me, who stood up against the way KK has said things.


A few days ago I had a discussion with David Kelner on his personal twitter where this subject with KK came up again. I said my views once again and Mr Kelner also defended what KK had said in the same way Mr Phelps had defended KK´s comments.
At one point Mr Kelner said that many of my tweets to the shows on William Hill radio had been "really horrendous", which is a total lie. Directly after writing this Mr Kelner blocked me to make it impossible for me to reply to his accusations. I am hugely offended by this tweet from Mr Kelner as I never have said or written anything demeaning based on a persons race, colour, features, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or anything such that.
Mr Kelner accusations made me angry and I wrote that I find it strange that William Hill defends racism and lashes out to anyone standing up against racist comments and that I vowed never to listen

This made Mr Phelps once again respond to me by blocking me on all William Hill's twitter accounts. After this happened I have at two different occasions received messages from Mr Phelps with the same threats as before; that William Hill will take action if I continued to call the comments made by anyone on the radio service for racist.


There are a few things I must point out before continuing.
I do not say that KK is a racist but if someone willingly uses comments with demeaning wording about other peoples (whether it is about racer, gender etc) he or she must be a bigott or a complete idiot not knowing the impact of what he or she says.

My complaints about staff att William Hill and/or William hill radio are strictly made about Lee Phelps and David Kelner. But as Mr Phelps has written to me as a representative of William Hill radio so any of his bosses that condone his treatment of this issue is also included in the complaint.
I have NOTHING against the other radio presenters that work at any of William Hill radios services.

I do not call Mr Phelps or Mr Kelner racist, bigotts or any thing in that meaning. My complaint is how they treated me and my complaint and their defense of KK's comments with racial innuendo.

Mr Phelps, in particular, could have handled this much netter as the defense used about KK is as stupid as anyone defending Donald Trumps sexist comments calling them "locker room-talk). If you defend racism in small form you also allow for  racism in lager scale.


As I only have been met by abusive behavior from Mr Phelps and Mr Kelner and shown no understanding that KK's comments can be seen as abusive I will end with the following statement:



I will do what is in my power to show people on social media and elsewhere that William Hill and William Hill radio in particular defends the use of comments with racist innuendo. I will tell people about the bigotry displayed by Mr Phelps and Mr Kelner and the way they treat people with different views who stand up against racism. This I will do until;

William Hill and William Hill radio show they take racism and comments with racist innuendo seriously and/or William Hill and William Hill radio make a public apology of the comments made by KK in podcasts and/or the highest boss on William Hill and/or William Hill radio write personally to me wanting to the discuss the issues in a grown-up way, which both Mr Phelps and Mr Kelner failed to do.

Apart from this I also demand a personal apology from Mr David Kelner on the comment he made comparing my tweets to racism and bigotry.


Mårten Wedebrand