Kindred and Betclic granted poker liquidity licences

Kindred Group and Betclic have become the latest operators to receive shared online poker liquidity liceces from French regulator ARJEL.

Both operators are now licensed to share online poker liquidity with Italy, Portugal and Spain after all four countries signed the liquidity treaty last summer.

Under the terms of the newly-granted licences, Betclic and Kindred will be able to merge player pools in countries that participate in the scheme, as long as they are licensed to operate there.

Poker liquidity sharing software will also need to be approved by the regulators of each country where they would operate shared poker tables, as participants are concerned about the possibility of cross-country money laundering.

So far, PokerStars is the only operator to have successfully launched cross border poker liquidity between France and Spain.

The Stars Group CEO Rafi Ashkenazi claimed following the operator’s Q4 results that the shared pool was generating a 30% uptick in revenues compared to standalone business in France and Spain.

Winamax are soon set to join PokerStars in Spain after releasing a countdown teaser video to its launch in the Spanish poker market on its new website, Winamax.es.

France and Spain are the only countries to have successfully incorporated the shared liquidity framework so far, with Portugal set to join in Q218 and Italy’s involvement delayed after obstructions in the courts.

Betclic is a native French operator while Kindred entered the market in 2011 after acquiring SPS Betting France Limited, which now operates the Unibet.fr domain.