Sky Bet has "best of both worlds", MD says
Richard Flint says retaining Sky brand with greater investment will enable the operator be more ambitious with expansion plans
Sky Bet will retain its “unique” brand and continue to press ahead with international expansion plans following its acquisition by CVC Capital Partners with the operator now having the “best of both worlds”, according to managing director Richard Flint.
Speaking to eGaming Review following the announcement Sky had sold a majority stake in the operator to CVC for £720m, Flint said the deal would enable the company to be more ambitious in the future.
“It’s the best of both worlds for us as it keeps the Sky brand and Sky relationship which makes us unique but means we’ve got access to investment without competing with other parts of Sky,” he said.
“We’ll mix the benefits of being part of Sky with being an independent company, including a greater degree of autonomy, and it helps us be more ambitious,” he said.
“We want to continue to focus on product and technology, while being fast moving and entrepreneurial,” Flint added.
Sky’s decision to sell its controlling stake in the operator follows its recent £4.9bn acquisition of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, which opened up potential launches in the Italian and German online gambling markets for Sky Bet.
And Flint said that today’s announcement will not impact the operator’s push into these markets as the transaction was on the basis of its current business plan.
“It doesn’t impact our plans [to expand into new markets],” he said.
“The business plan involves a lot of growth in the UK and looking more seriously at other markets, particularly Italy, and potentially Germany when the situation there becomes clearer,” Flint added.
The deal, which was finalised last night, values Sky Bet at £800m and will see the operator’s management team remain in place at the firm.
Flint will take on the new role of Sky Betting and Gaming chief executive and said the day-to-day operation would remain “business as usual” with the firm to remain based in Leeds.
Betfair chief executive Breon Corcoran commented on the deal during his firm’s H1 analyst call this morning, praising the work Flint and his team had done in building the business.
“Richard Flint and his team hadn’t really received the praise they deserved for the phenomenal job they’ve done at SkyBet,” Corcoran said adding that the price paid by CVC “was testament to that good work”.