The poker ring games market continued to deteriorate in France during the last quarter, again dragging the dot.fr sector to an overall decline, new figures from regulator ARJEL have revealed.
Licensed operators’ gross gaming revenue (GGR) from ring games and tournaments fell 10% year-on-year to €63m on the back of a 13% dip in Q1, meaning the poker sector ended H1 12% down at €135m.
This €18m shortfall in poker revenues by the end of June 2013 more than offset increases from the other two regulated sectors in France, horse race betting and sports betting, as total GGR from the country’s online gambling sector contracted 2% year-on-year to €352m from €359m.
The decline of the poker market and the wider dot.fr sector was driven by the continued downward spiral of poker ring games, which suffered a 16% decline in the second quarter to compound a 13% dip in Q1, ending the half 14% down at €2.742bn. The figures were released to Le Figaro following last Thursday’s meeting of online gambling regulators from Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy and Portugal.
With stakes from the smaller tournament poker market ending the half flat at €713m and active players down 7% to 906,000, the ring games decline can no longer be attributed to players switching to less highly taxed tournament formats.
The newspaper’s source, apparently present at the meeting, said the decline had been put down to a “lack of attractiveness of the legal online poker market in France”. The French regulator, which warned last November that the ceiling for growth was fast approaching due to a lack of players, has admitted the sustainability of the market depends on allowing liquidity pooling with other jurisdictions, but that this requires a legislative change by the French government.
Local incumbent Winamax is the market leader in France’s regulated online poker sector, ahead of PokerStars.
In France’s largest regulated market sector of horse race betting, dominated by former monopoly PMU, operators’ gross gaming yield was up 2.5% to €137m, with active punters stable at 388,000.
In sports betting, a market which many of Europe’s leading operators including Bet365, William Hill, Sportingbet and Ladbrokes chose not to enter due to the punitive stakes-based tax levied by French authorities, GGR was up 11.5% to €80m, underpinned by a 11% rise in stakes to €402m. The rise was attributed to betting on Ligue 1 football, specifically in games involving eventual champions PSG. Numbers of active sports bettors remained flat at 554,000.
Article written by Stephen Carter
