William Hill and Sky back NYX in acquisition of gaming rival OpenBet

Bookmaker William Hill and Sky's 20%-owned Skybet have agreed to invest in Canadian online casino games supplier NYX Gaming to enable it to acquire fellow gaming company Openbet for £270m.

William Hill will buy £10m of NYX's equity and contribute a further £80m via a note redeemable in cash or shares, while SkyBet will contribute £20m.

NYX and OpenBet are both suppliers to William Hill, with the former supplying more than a third of the games on the FTSE-listed company's Vegas platform.

In turn, London-based William Hill has been a customer of sports betting and gaming technology provider OpenBet since 2008.

Alongside the investment, the bookmaker has agreed a ten-year commercial agreement with NYX to further develop existing sports betting, gaming and retail platforms on williamhill.com and develop a new platform over the next three years.

William Hill chief executive James Henderson said: "This route draws on the OpenBet team’s proven sports betting technology expertise and NYX’s gaming platform to give us a bespoke technology solution to support and deliver our UK and international growth strategies.

"I am delighted that William Hill is supporting NYX’s vision for growth and expansion into sports betting alongside its strong gaming proposition."