Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have claimed the mandates on Sky's £800m sale of its Sky Bet bookmaker subsidiary to CVC Capital Partners.

HSF is acting for the seller on the deal with a team led by London corporate partners Mark Bardell and technology specialist Amanda Hale, alongside tax partner Howard Murray.

The deal, which is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2015 subject to regulatory approval, will see the private equity firm paying £600m in cash for a controlling stake, with Sky retaining 20% of its betting business.

CVC has turned to trustedlong standing legal adviser Freshfields on the acquisition. Last year Freshfields lost private equity heavy weight Chris Brown to CVC's in-house team. Brown had previously served as global private equity co-head and founded the firm's London based private equity team.

Meanwhile, Debevoise & Plimpton is advising Sky Bet's management on the deal, with a team led by London corporate partner David Innes and London co-managing partner Richard Ward on tax matters. The firm is also providing legal counsel on the employment aspects of the sale.

Golman Sachs is providing financial advice to Sky on the transaction.

In July HSF advised BskyB on its acquisition of Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia for $8.6bn (£6.4bn).

"In the last ten years, we have successfully grown Sky Bet from a start-up to one of the leading online betting and gaming companies in the UK," said Group chief executive of Sky, Jeremy Darroch "This transaction will allow us to focus further on the substantial growth opportunities in our core international pay TV business while realising significant value for our shareholders."