Unibet.fr goes live
Operator will take "cautious" approach as it re-enters the French market for the first time since regulation was introduced.
French regulator ARJEL has announced that Unibet has been awarded licences for horse betting, sports betting and poker, paving the way for the company to relaunch in France, but this time in a regulated market.
Following its acquisition of Eurosportbet owner Solfive for an initial consideration of £4.8m in November, Unibet was required to reapply for its three French licenses. The operator was awarded three licences in October 2010, however it chose not to switch them on due to restrictive market conditions. Before France regulated in 2010 Unibet enjoyed a sizeable share of the market under its Mr Bookmaker brand that it acquired in August 2005 for £79.5m.
Under the terms of the agreement, Unibet will lose the use of the Eurosportbet and Eurosportpoker brands following a transition period, which ends 1 January next year. At this time both sites will be rebranded as Unibet.fr, and players trying to access the Eurosport sites will be redirected to Unibet for a year.
Christophe Dhaisne, Unibet’s head of licensed markets, admitted that due to the difficult conditions in the French market, the company would not invest heavily in promoting the brand to acquire new players, preferring to focus on reacquiring its old player base: “The link with the brand is still very strong, as Unibet was one of the biggest sports betting sites in France before licensing was introduced. Using our knowledge of the French market, we are looking to build synergies between the SPS brands and the rest of Unibet’s operations.
“The conditions in the French market are very tough, and a large marketing spend will make it almost impossible to achieve positive EBITDA. We are going to be cautious, as the current situation in the market forces us to be cautious,” he added.