Interactive NYX GAMING AND OPENBET
Adapting to customer needs - evolving to become even stronger
G3 talks to NYX Gaming CEO, Matt Davey, and OpenBet CEO, Jeremy Thompson-Hill about the opportunties ahead for the combined businesses
OpenBet’s platform is so deeply imbedded into the infrastructure of multiple operators, the industry viewed the acquisition of OpenBet by NYX as ensuring the company’s independence. How do you maintain that stance, however, with Sky Bet and William Hill such large shareholders in NYX?
Matt Davey, CEO, NYX Gaming
Matt Davey is CEO of NYX Gaming Group. He co-founded NextGen Gaming and has led NYX since inception.
Matt Davey:We structured this deal in a manner which ensured that the independence of our business was maintained. Te structure excluded additional board seats, voting rights, influence over management or access to competitive information for those customers who are investors. It was vital to preserve the core of our business from any control by third parties. Our shareholders, including William Hill and Sky Betting & Gaming, value our discretion to our partners and certainly do not want to jeopardize any relationships. It is not uncommon to see B2B providers part-owned by B2C operators in the gaming industry, and we are confident our structure is transparent and healthy for everyone.
Jeremy Tompson-Hill CEO, OpenBet
Jeremy Thompson-Hill is CEO of OpenBet, the world’s leading provider to the sports betting industry and a part of the NYX Gaming Group.
OpenBet has been a champion of omni-channel since the coining of the term - so was it an obvious move to have operators involved in the ownership of that technology (Coral has just launched its own in—house developed sports book platform) as it’s now so fundamental to their businesses?
Jeremy Tompson-Hill: I would like to answer the question as two questions. Focusing on omni-channel first, OpenBet isn't driving omni- channel development because it thinks it's a great idea, it's reacting to the direction of the market. If you think about our customers, especially those we've signed over the past five years, they have huge landbased elements to their business. Tey may be betting shops, they
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may be casinos, they may provide kiosks, they may be lotteries, but they all have a strong landbased presence. Omni-channel is about us understanding and bringing that together. It's a reflection of the industry and the clients that we're now serving and the needs that they have. It's absolutely the top focus, because without it, I don't know if we'd have a product in years to come.
Secondly to answer the point about in-house development, last year we talked about our decision to focus on what we were best at and decouple the front-end, because we feel this is an area that our operators should control. Coral’s new sportsbook is not a new platform, but a front-end that is, at its heart, an omni-channel offering. Tis strategy has been incredibly successful for Sky Betting & Gaming and it is one we support as part of our commitment to an open platform and gaming ecosystem. open platform and gaming ecosystem.
How do the two companies capitalise on the complimentary nature of each business, and how separate will the operation of both NYX and OpenBet be in the future?
Matt Davey: TTere are many benefits for the group as a whole. Te deal expands the breadth of our product offering, so we can now provide a larger portfolio of products under a single
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