ARJEL repeals licences of four operators
TitanBet and PokerXtrem among those affected after respective withdrawal from French egaming market and merger with MyPok.
French regulatory authority ARJEL has repealed the licences of four operators as the number of companies within the country’s online gambling market continues to shrink.
Among those to surrender their licences is TitanPoker.fr owner The Nation Traffic, with the operator confirming plans to exit the market in July after requesting the repeal of its dot.fr sports betting licence in December last year.
PokerXtrem has also relinquished its licence, having no need for it after completing its merger with MyPok in a deal which will see combined group FullPok join the soon-to-launch Partouche Poker network in the EU country.
Also on the way out are bwin.party brands Partybets and Gamebookers after the operator’s sports betting licences “ held in the name of Electraworks “ were repealed. Bwin.party continues to offer online poker in France, where PartyPoker.fr ranks fourth for cash game traffic according to Pokerscout.
It trails Winamax, PokerStars and Everest Poker in the dot.fr poker market, although the latter is anticipated to make up the bulk of a revived iPoker network in the country following the announcement of an agreement with Playtech last week.
The fourth operator to relinquish its licence is Snai, although the Italian operator never launched a French offering despite being awarded a sports betting licence by ARJEL.
The four operators are just the latest in a growing number to have exited the French egaming market in recent months.
July saw Iliad Gaming announce that it would be closing its chilipoker.fr domain, with Itechsoft taking over another of Iliad’s domains, turbopoker.fr, and another licensee – PokerLeaders – has been forced to delay its entry. This comes after last year’s closure of 200% Poker after a period of inactivity.
ARJEL’s recent second-quarter market numbers showed an 11% decline in poker gross gaming revenue, however sports betting and horse betting helped the market record an overall GGR increase of 8.3% compared to the corresponding period in 2011.