Dealing in France

With the official green light for a regulated French market there has been some serious jockeying for position by the big online gaming firms in advance of the first licences this summer. Mangas Gaming, majority owners of Everest Poker, PartyGaming, owners of Party Poker and Ladbrokes have all aligned themselves with major media brands in France. And the market is slowly taking shape.

Mangas Gaming is arguably the best placed of all the operators. The firm owns sports betting brand BetClic as well as 60% of poker site Everest Poker, both of whom have a strong presence in the French market. And it has now announced a strategic partnership with media firm M6 Group.

The deal will see Everest and BetClic sponsor poker and sports-related content across M6’s nine digital channels and produce new branded programming for the channels. ‘We are delighted about the visibility M6 will provide to our brands and services on both its channels and websites, especially in the poker segment,’ Nicholas Beraud, Mangas chief executive, said.

In a similar deal, UK sports betting giant Ladbrokes has formed a joint venture with French TV operator Canal+, who have 10.8 million subscribers in France and control the nation’s premium sports channel. The as yet unnamed site will be a 50/50 partnership and Ladbrokes will not operate any other sites in the French market.

Joining The Party

PartyGaming missed out on the early surge in growth in the Italian market and is determined not to do so in France. The firm has signed a deal to provide a white label poker site to the huge French pool betting body Paris Mutuel Urbain (PMU). PMU is the largest pool betting monopoly in Europe and has also inked a deal with PaddyPower to white label its sportsbook product.

Party will also have its own PartyPoker.fr site as well as a white label site for yet another media firm AB Groupe, which has around 52 million paid subscribers and offers 15 channels in French speaking countries. AB’s poker site, LuckyJeux, will join Party’s French network of sites.

What is interesting about these deals is how the local media and gaming firms have opted not to go it alone, but rather partner with existing gaming firms. It is a tacit acknowledgement of how hard it is to get online gaming right both technologically and from a marketing perspective for sports betting and poker. ‘We have chosen to join our forces to the leading French sports betting and online gambling group, providing our know-how in contents creation and interactivity,’ Valéry Gerfaud, M6 managing director, said.

The Powers That Be

The only firms to attempt to carve their own path are the French lottery operator, Francaise des Jeux (FDJ) and the largest TV operator in France, TF1. The two firms have joined forces and FDJ will be the online betting partner of TF1 after it bought in sports betting expertise by acquiring fixed-odds betting software firm LVS. FDJ has also signed a deal with Orange to be the betting partner on its French portals, as well as linking up with the land-based casino group Barrière for online poker.

The huge bwin group will also be looking aggressively at the French market, which has historically been a major territory for the firm. As will the online giant PokerStars, which has launched a new French live poker tour to help build its brand in the region.

With licences still to be awarded, and the legislation looking far from problem free, it will be interesting to see if the French market proves a goldmine or a distraction for many of the firms listed above. There will be a marketing war in the latter half of the year, with some high profile casualties as well as some big winners.