Sky Betting & Gaming teams up with bookies for £20m slice of action
LEEDS-BASED gambling business Sky Betting & Gaming has teamed up with William Hill as they enter into the gaming market across the Atlantic.
As part of a deal to invest in Canadian gaming company NYX, the two UK heavyweights have agreed to support the £270m acquisition of technology business OpenBet.
William Hill is investing £80m in the form of a note redeemable in cash or shares in NYX with an interest coupon of 6% payable in kind.
This investment and a further investment of £10m in equity in NYX by William Hill is supporting the acquisition of OpenBet. SkyBet is investing £20m in the venture.
NYX has been tied in on a 10-year contract to develop existing sports betting, gaming and retail platforms and to develop a new platform over the next three years.
William Hill has been a customer of OpenBet since 2008. The business supplies 650 games to 170 customers.
James Henderson, chief executive of William Hill, commented: “Our new commercial agreement is a key step in delivering our technology strategy by enhancing our current platforms and, in parallel, developing a new back-end platform for William Hill to complement and support our Trafalgar platform which is focused on our front-end user experience.”
Matt Davey, CEO of NYX Gaming Gaming Group, commented:”The acquisition of OpenBet by NYX completes the core portfolio of industry-leading products and services we offer to our customers. They are two highly complementary businesses with key strengths in regulated markets, technology services and gaming content.”
Citigroup Global Markets Limited acted as sole financial adviser to William Hill on its investment in NYX.
