William Hill has given up on its attempts to bring its online gaming operations into the 21st century and signed with internet specialist Playtech to launch a joint venture on the web.

The news comes as Hill has clawed back some of the "Aidan effect" during the summer when bookies were routinely taken to the cleaners by punters backing multiple-winning horses such as Henrythenavigator and Duke of Marmalade, trained by the Irish handler Aidan O'Brien.

In a deal aimed at bringing Hill into line with the more innovative leaders of the internet gaming industry, Britain's second-largest bookmaker today announced the creation of a new subsidiary called William Hill Online. It will include Hill's own much-delayed platform to allow punters to bet in-running, when odds are constantly changing through a race or a match, and a new set of assets being brought in by Playtech.

Playtech will pump in about £140 million of assets into the venture, which will allow Hill's punters access to state-of-the-art casino and poker websites. The gaming software group will take a 29% stake in William Hill Online and 29% of the earnings from the operation, which this year would pro-forma produce net revenues of £190 million and underlying profits of £75 million. "It is well-documented we have made slow progress in our technological developments in the last three to four years," said chief executive Ralph Topping.

"At a stroke, this gives us access to new brains, new ideas, new ways of doing things and the hell of a lot of people that we just did not have."

Hill today reported a 10% leap in winnings in its retail business over the third trading quarter of the year.

That compares with a rise of 5% for the first half and the first months of the flat season in which O'Brien sought a record-breaking run. But punters' fortunes have recently been reversed, with Henrythenavigator and Duke of Marmalade's first defeats of the season.