Investing in France
Canel Frichet, managing director of Winamax, explains how operators can be successful in the high-tax French market.
When the French government decided to officially regulate the online gambling market at the beginning of 2010, there was plenty of optimism surrounding the potential expansion of the market. Some were even expecting 1.5m new customers in the first year.
However, with a strict legal framework, allowing only two forms of poker and operators eligible to be taxed on 45% of the gross revenue, it has been said that these attempts at market regulation have restricted growth. But despite this criticism it is possible to have a structured business model in France in the current regulatory environment.
Winamax had the largest TV and web advertising budget for poker when we entered the market. This allowed us to quickly become one of the most recognised poker brands in the French market.
Strong investment in advertising has been crucial in raising our profile in France, while a passionate marketing team has enabled us to rapidly update our player community on a daily basis.
It has been equally important to back this up with a strong product. With this in mind, we developed our own custom-made poker client, which was launched on the day that the French market was regulated. This gave us complete control over the product we were offering and allowed us to offer a unique, French-facing poker product. As our company grows, we will be able to offer our poker client as a white label solution to other companies, consolidating our position in the market.
The advertising campaign has made us one of the most recognised gaming brands in France, with 56 percentage points on the Ipsos rankings. This has led to a remarkable number of new player sign-ups. With 500,000 new players, we are second only to PokerStars.fr in terms of “occupied seats” and far ahead of everyone else “ all this has been achieved with a team of 70 employees.