Iliad to shut chilipoker.fr
Players to be reimbursed within fortnight of shutdown " while TurboPoker.fr domain has been transferred to NetBet owner.
Iliad Gaming, the joint venture between Chiligaming and media group Iliad will close its French-licensed poker room Chilipoker.fr on Monday it has announced.
As per French law, all players on the site “ which ceased all marketing activity in April “ will have their balances returned to them within two weeks of the shutdown.
Chilipoker.fr is one of several domains for which Iliad was licensed in the EU member state. A source close to the company told eGaming Review that another of these domains, turbopoker.fr, has now been transferred to NetBet owner Itechsoft. Itechsoft received licences for online poker and sports betting from French regulator ARJEL in March.
eGR understands that TurboPoker accounts for approximately 60% of Playtech’s iPoker.fr network, one of the smaller networks in the regulated French market.
The source claimed that there was a chance of the site returning to the French market if conditions change, although Iliad CFO Thomas Reynaud explained to newspaper La Tribune that “The competitive environment and egaming tax levels do not make it viable to operate.”
Reynaud described the joint venture as “Not the heart of [Iliad’s] business.” Its losses from Chilipoker.fr amounted to 2.8m in 2011.
Following the sale of its B2B igaming platform to Bally Technologies in February this year, Chiligaming merged its dot.com B2C poker operations with iPoker licensee Poker770 the following month. At the time, Chiligaming CEO Alex Dreyfus told eGR: “Moving forward, the priority is the regulated business in France and Bally’s iGaming business in US.”
A number of poker operators have experienced difficulties in France over recent months with LB Poker president Xavier Etienne pledging to turn a profit “by 2014 or 2015″ despite heavy losses last year.
However, Ignacio Martos, CEO of Betclic Everest, said he believed things had “Started settling into a sustainable and reasonable position” in the market.
In February this year ARJEL announced the formation of a committee, chaired by board members Laurent Sorbier and Jean-Luc Pain, to investigate more effective methods of regulation in the light of sports betting turnover falling 23% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Sports betting figures have since staged a mini-recovery in Q1 2012, although the country’s online poker decline continued.