Unibet and bwin.party extend French licences until 2020
Betclic also has operating licence renewed for a further five years as regulator nears completion of relicensing process
Unibet, bwin.party and Betclic Everest Group are among the first batch of operators to have their operating licences renewed until 2020 by French online gambling regulator l’Autorité de regulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL), eGaming Review has learned.
On Friday ARJEL began issuing licences for firms to operate online horseracing betting, sports betting and poker following the expiration of the original five-licences issued in May 2010, when the market was first opened to competition from foreign operators.
Unibet, PMU and Betclic all confirmed to eGR this morning that their licences had been renewed for an additional five years, while bwin has also received approval to continue operating sports betting and poker.
However, the operator’s partypoker brand is still awaiting regulatory approval, while rival Winamax was also a recent licence recipient.
France Pari was also one of the first operators to receive licences for sports and horseracing betting and founder and CEO Hervé Schlosser hailed his company’s growth since across the duration of the last licence period.
“When the French market opened, it was the start of our betting operations” Schlosser said. “Five years later we are well established as an operator but also as a global betting provider on a European scale,” he added.
According to figures released by ARJEL earlier this month, gross gaming revenue (GGR) from regulated French online sportsbook operators soared 17% year-on-year to 63m in Q1 2015, outpacing the overall market which rose a more modest 3% to 190m during the period.
France’s online poker woes continued in Q1 after the vertical recorded a 7% year-on-year decline in GGR, falling from 65m to 61m. Cash game stakes fell 15% year-on-year to 1bn while tournament stakes rose by 5% to 426m.