August 13, 2018
For the sixth quarter running French online poker operators have reported growth in revenues, the French regulator ARJEL notes in posting its Q2-2018 numbers. ARJEL sees the continued growth as a positive sign for a once-troubled sector that saw an initial 22 operators dwindle to just five in the first four years of regulated and […]
April 7, 2018
French online gambling regulator ARJEL has announced two more shared player pool licensees, authorising B.E.S. SAS and Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU) to offer their services to the shared online poker player pool agreed by France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, although the latter two nations have yet to implement the agreement fully (see previous reports). B.E.S. SAS […]
February 9, 2018
Online gambling operator Winamax has been approved by the French gambling regulator ARJEL to participate in online poker shared liquidity pools, currently with Portugal and Spain. Winamax became the second licensee to receive the approval following closely in PokerStars’ footsteps (see previous InfoPowa report).
May 28, 2017
French gaming regulator, ARJEL, in its latest quarterly sector report, revealed an online poker liquidity sharing agreement is imminent among select European Union regulatory bodies including Spain, Portugal and Italy. ARJEL expects agreements to be inked in June 2017, however, implementation would only begin with software technical standards testing submissions, at the earliest, in September […]
February 9, 2016
The French political and regulatory establishment certainly knows how to keep the overtaxed online poker sector on tenterhooks, especially when it comes to the oft-debated question of player pool sharing. Just weeks after it was reported that the shared player pools so essential for success in the sector have again been denied by French legislators […]
October 15, 2015
The French regulator ARJEL will have been disappointed this week to see that the draft of the new and much-hyped Digital Republic law did not include permission for the sharing of player pools with other like-minded jurisdictions. High taxation and restricted player liquidity have continued to constrain the development of French online and mobile poker, […]
May 5, 2015
Online poker once again failed to impress during the first quarter of 2015, the French regulatory authority ARJEL revealed in its first quarterly report of 2015. The French regulated market yielded a total gross gaming revenue of Euro 190 million, largely attributed to a rise in sports betting as horse race betting remained flat and […]
July 20, 2014
Soon after the June 2014 announcement that Amaya Gaming was to acquire Pokerstars parent The Rational Group, the company advised that it had commenced talks with the French regulator ARJEL regarding the impact of the ownership change on the licensing for Pokerstars.fr. After inviting the operator to provide it with details, ARJEL has now indicated […]
April 15, 2014
The French online gambling regulator ARJEL’s latest industry numbers show that declines in cash game traffic in the heavily taxed and ring-fenced online market contributed to the erosion in poker overall despite more positive indicators on the tournament play side. The market has been fading for the past two to three years and shows little […]
December 20, 2013
Regulators from France, Spain and Italy have been discussing the practical need to increase player liquidity in their ring-fenced regulatory regimes by pooling their poker players for months, but on Wednesday the concept – recommended to France’s lawmakers by regulator ARJEL – was shot down…and without much debate. The politicians chose isolation rather than permitting […]