Interactive

US – NYX secures deal for OpenBet for £270m

By Phil - 4 April 2016

NYX Gaming has bought OpenBet for £270m, which includes repayment of OpenBet’s £95.4m existing third party debt, in a deal that will also include William Hill and Sky Betting and Gaming.

The takeover will join together two of the world’s most established and proven suppliers to create an organisation that will deliver the leading end to end solution for regulated gaming markets.

William Hill and Sky Betting and Gaming will be participating in the transaction through a preferred equity investment of £100m. William Hill will engage NYX and OpenBet in a development program to further modernise OpenBet’s technology. The Development Program will take approximately three years to complete and is estimated to generate £10m in EBITDA to NYX over that three year period.

Matt Davey , CEO of NYX, said: “The acquisition of OpenBet by NYX completes the 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. It positions NYX as the leading provider of B2B betting and gaming solutions on a global scale. We are looking forward to working with OpenBet and their customers to help them to deliver world class experiences to their players.”

Jeremy Thompson-Hill, CEO of OpenBet, added: “The joining of OpenBet and NYX is a natural union born out of synergies in product, the customer base and, importantly, culture. It will enable us to leverage our knowledge, strengths and resources to deliver our customers with best-in-class products and technologies across all verticals and channels.”

Robin Chhabra, Group Director of Strategy & Corporate Development at William Hill commented: “I am delighted that William Hill is supporting NYX’s vision for growth and expansion into sports betting alongside its strong gaming proposition. Our investment in NYX builds on our long standing relationship with both NYX and OpenBet.”

Richard Flint, CEO of SkyBet added: “Sky Betting & Gaming is thrilled to be supporting the acquisition of OpenBet by NYX. OpenBet is a market-leading platform that we have worked closely with for a number of years. We are confident that NYX will be excellent owners of OpenBet and will bring a fresh perspective to the business that will benefit all of their customers. We’re excited about the long term future of this business.”

NYX expects to generate annual cost synergies of C$4m to C$6m and revenue synergies of C$8m to C$10m, excluding the Development Program.

OpenBet has industry leading technology and in 2014 processed 11bn transactions and as many as 56m transactions in a 24 hour period
The Sportsbook platform completes NYX’s product line-up and provides the opportunity for expanding NYX’s presence in the U.K. and other regulated global markets. OpenBet’s blue chip customer base includes many of the most dominant bookmakers in the UK and other regulated global gaming markets. For the fiscal year ending June 2015, OpenBet generated revenue and adjusted EBITDA of £64.5m and £21.8m, respectively. For the three months ending December 2015, OpenBet generated unaudited revenue and adjusted EBITDA of £17.8m and £8m, respectively.

James Midmer, Head of Corporate Communications at Paddy Power Betfair plc, one of OpenBet’s key customers, said: “We look forward to working with NYX and OpenBet and are confident that the combined group will continue to deliver a great product and service.”

In addition to the OpenBet acquisition, NYX has also reached an agreement to sell its European Poker Business, a division within the business known as Ongame. As part of the agreement, a partner with proven experience in the industry will take on all costs, customer contracts and development for the poker product. NYX will retain both a significant share of the new business and exclusive rights to use the poker product across North America . The agreement is effective as of March 31, 2016.

Headquartered in Las Vegas, NYX Gaming Group Limited is a premier digital gaming supplier headquartered has more than 445 employees based in eight across Europe, North America and Australia. It provides one of the world’s largest portfolios of content and technology to over 170 unique customers with a collective game catalogue of over 650 games. The game catalogue includes slots, table games, scratch cards, lottery, bingo and poker available across web and mobile formats.