by Renee Israel
The leading French casino operator Groupe Partouche has announced that it
will enter the lucrative United Kingdom online gambling market. It will at the
same time target other Internet gaming jurisdictions outside France.
In order to facilitate this objective, Partouche will extend its
partnership with France-Pari, which offers online betting services.
Partouche is being represented by its subsidiary, Partouche Images, which has a
partnership with France-Pari in the sports betting portal Placedesparis.fr. This
online sports book is licensed in France under the regulatory mechanism that was
put in place last year to service French punters.
The United Kingdom and other international gambling markets will be accessed
through the license obtained by Partouche in the jurisdiction of Malta, which
licenses and regulates online gambling operators through the Lotteries and
Gaming Authority.
Malta has been included in the white list issued under the U.K. Gambling Act
of 2005 and by virtue of this, online gambling operators licensed in Malta can
advertise and solicit business in the United Kingdom. Being on the UK white list
will help the Partouche and France-Pari partnership in other international
online gambling markets as well.
France-Pari will bring its online sports betting platform and trading
knowledge to the partnership. Partouche has announced that the first site to go
live under this new agreement will be Livebetting.com. However, the announcement
did not indicate a specific date for the launch.
France-Pari Registers High Turnover Growth
A week before this Partouche and France-Pari agreement, France-Pari had
announced it annual financial results. The turnover of the company in 2011
increased sharply to almost £6 million from
£1.1 million in the previous year. 90% of
this turnover came from the France-Pari sports betting operations.
The firm's total gross gaming revenues exceeded
£1 million during 2011. France-Pari launched three new
B2B platforms in 2011. For the online gaming operator JOA Online, it launched
sports betting and horse racing platforms and for Netbet a sports betting
platform.
The company statement affirmed that this dramatic growth in turnover will
continue unabated in 2012. The annual turnover this year is expected to be
between £12 million and
£16 million.
New projects that will contribute to this increase in turnover are a new
horse race betting platform for Netbet and further development of B2B portals
for the brand SportnCo brand. In January and February this year, the turnover
for France-Pari was almost £1.5 million,
which was more than double the turnover during the same period last year.
