Ladbrokes and Sky team up for digital turf accountancy

A joint venture between Ladbrokes and BSkyB to develop and operate a fixed-odds and pools betting business linked to Sky Digital was announced today.

Vernons will add its pools business to the venture and BSkyB will include its bookmaker Surrey Sports, which already operates on Sky Digital. The venture will work under the Ladbrokes name for fixed-odds betting and the Vernons brand name for the pools.

Ladbrokes will nominate the CEO of the business, provide betting and gaming management expertise and marketing support to the company. It will also give BSkyB a cash payment of £30m on completion and on-going operational payments from the venture linked to both betting volumes and profitability, although no new jobs have been announced from either company in connection with this venture.

The joint venture will have exclusive rights for five years to offer interactive sports betting on Sky Sports Extra and certain other Sky Sports channels on Sky Digital, and non-exclusive rights for a further five years.

It is believed the venture will be debt free and profitable from the date of its launch. A spokesman for Sky Digital said that by the second year the venture will make a net profit of £300m.

John O'Reilly, Managing Director of Ladbrokes eGaming said: "This is a really exciting deal. With the size and scale of BSkyB and the range of sports covered, combined with Ladbrokes as the biggest bookmakers in the UK, the potential is unlimited."

By Nicola Welch