David Harding, the chief executive of the bookmaker William Hill for the past seven years, has resigned after receiving approaches from a number of companies.

Mr Harding, who led the group’s flotation in 2002, will not be receiving a payoff, but he will continue to draw a salary until his departure, due by the end of the year. He received salary and bonuses of £1 million last year.

Charles Scott, the chairman, said: “The board accepted his decision to step down with regret and will continue to work closely with him during the transition phase.”

Mr Harding said: “I felt that at 51 if I didn’t do something else now I’d probably end up spending the rest of my career at William Hill.

“Seven years is a good innings. Tony Blair did ten and most people think that was three years too many.”

He said that the company would have “a good trawl both internally and externally” for a successor, although analysts believe that the departure last year of Tom Singer, the chief operating officer, with a £625,000 payoff makes an external appointment more likely.

Mr Harding said that he had yet to decide what to do next, although he was debarred from running another bookmaker. He worked previously at Prudential, latterly as deputy chief executive of Scottish Amicable, and was managing director of Charles Schwab Europe. He has also worked for Jaguar Cars and One2One.

He added: “I’ve had a number of approaches, but I’m uncomfortable talking to people while I’m still fronting the company.’’ Three years ago, Mr Harding caused a stir when he sold £5.3 million in shares, although it emerged later that he needed the money to pay for a divorce. He and his new partner have a son aged almost two.

In April, he pocketed £2.5 million from selling shares awarded under an executive incentive plan and is sitting on a further £230,000 of incentive shares. He directly owns 50,000 shares worth a further £305,000 at last night’s close of 610p, up 2p.

“I’ve done very well out of William Hill. I have no complaints,” he said.

Two years ago, Mr Harding led the £504 million acquisition of Stanley Leisure’s betting unit, taking William Hill into Ireland for the first time and allowing it to challenge Ladbrokes as Britain’s biggest bookmaker. The companies are broadly neck and neck, with about 2,200 shops apiece.

Odds and ends

Shops: 2,267 (59 in Ireland)

Online sportsbook: offers service in eight languages and eleven currencies to customers in 150 countries

Telephone betting: call centres can handle 100,000 calls simultaneously on Grand National day

Timeline:

2002: floats on stock market at 225p

2005: £504m acquisition of Stanley Racing

2006: signs Spanish sports-betting joint venture with Codere, later extended to Italy

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