BSkyB and Ladbrokes have agreed to form a joint 50:50 venture to offer a fixed-odds and pools betting service via the Sky Digital television platform.
Ladbrokes’ Vernons pools business will be transferred to the joint venture and BSkyB will contribute its wholly-owned bookmaker Surrey Sports, which already operates on Sky Digital. The service will operate under the Ladbrokes brand for fixed-odds betting and the Vernons brand name for pools betting, the company said.
BSkyB is to receive a cash payment of £30 million from Ladbrokes on completion and on-going operational payments from the joint venture linked to both betting volumes and profitability. The business is expected to be profitable from launch.
The service will have exclusive rights for five years to offer interactive sports betting on Sky Sports Extra, some other Sky Sports channels on Sky Digital and non-exclusive rights for a further five years.
Ladbrokes is the betting and gaming division of Hilton Group. David Michels, group chief executive of Hilton Group, said: “Linking innovative betting opportunities to live broadcasting is a compelling proposition. This partnership means Ladbrokes and BSkyB will be the first companies in the world to develop betting via interactive television to its full potential.”
At 1:45pm today shares in BSkyB were 22p at 701p following news of the deal.
