LB Poker president optimistic despite losses
Operator records net loss of 30m in 2011 but Xavier Etienne predicts operator will be profitable.
Xavier Etienne, the president of Barrière-FDJ joint venture LB Poker, is confident the company will be able to turn a profit “by 2014 or 2015″ despite losses of 29.8m in 2011.
The net loss was accompanied by just 3.37m in turnover, however LB Poker extended its partnership with Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) in the first month of this year to cover the US market.
Speaking to French newspaper Les Echos, Etienne said: “We are at the beginning of an investment in an industrial project,” adding that “The construction of the fundamental is behind us [and] we can ramp up commercially and innovate in the product.”
LB Poker, in which FDJ and land-based casino operator Groupe Lucien Barrière each hold a 43.84% stake and which uses its own egaming software on flagship site BarrierePoker.fr, claims to have a 3% share of the French online poker market.
Last year was its first full 12 months of operations and it recorded turnover of 0.53m for the seven months of 2010 for which it was active following the signature of a deal between Groupe Lucien Barrière and FDJ in January of that year and the subsequent receipt of a French egaming licence from regulator ARJEL.
Last year, through its agreement with CIE, it hosted the World Series of Poker Europe in Cannes for the first time, while the BarrierePoker.com site offers satellites to its own live tour, featuring several events across France.