France’s gaming regulator says oui to 10 sportsbook license renewals

France's gaming regulator, L'Autorité Nationale des jeux (ANJ), has been active since taking over from ARJEL (the internet gaming regulator or the Autorité de régulation des jeux en ligne). A few months earlier, the handover took place as the nation tried to reform its gaming control, opening the way for a single federal authority to become ANJ's first president and tapping political chief Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin. Ticking off another thing in the lengthy checklist of duties at hand, the regulator reported this week that ten online sportsbooks have been granted permission to retain their licenses. also, it invited a new player into the room.

Online gaming was introduced a decade ago in France and the business has since enjoyed a small amount of popularity. Licenses are given for five years, and this scheme will continue until it is agreed by all that various license terms are acceptable. the nation currently has 14 sports gambling license holders, plus a visitor to the room looking to catch some of the other-controlled action. NJJ Project Thirteen aims at sports gaming and horse racing, which will run under the name GényBet.

In general, France has issued 19 licences for sports gambling, horse racing and internet gaming, with some operators having more than one licence. This list includes B.E.S. SAS (operator of bwin.fr and partypoker.fr), Betclic Enterprises Ltd (betclic.fr), France Pari (france-pari.fr and feelingbet.fr).

Vivaro is a BetConstruct subsidiary which manages its B2C operations. The barrierebet.fr website was an extension to its portfolio approved by ANJ and comes from a collaboration with the French hotel and leisure firm, Groupe Barriere.

To maintain their operations in France, licensees are expected to adhere to a system of stringent inspections. ANJ pays careful attention to concerns such as player safety, sport ethics, protected ads and more, and offences, based on their seriousness, may result in the regulator agreeing not to accept a license renewal.

The operators have been granted an overall good health bill with the license extension, but ANJ shouldn't stray too far away. Pari-Mutuel Urbain was hit by ARJEL just ahead of the handover with a whopping $1-million fine and ANJ would want to make sure it, as well as everyone else, is playing by the rules.

Online gaming is also attracting bigger audiences in France. This year, it was given a boost thanks to the COVID-19-forced lockdowns worldwide, and gross online gaming revenue in the world saw a small uptick. ANJ notes that GGR online gaming came in at €758 million over the first half of the year ($893.15 million), with a rise of 8% year-on-year.