(BFM Bourse) – After horse betting on the Internet, online poker. La Française des Jeux has obtained approval from the National Gaming Authority to offer “online circle games”. This bodes well for the FDJ, which recently raised its annual outlook.
La Française des Jeux (FDJ) is beefing up its offer a little more. After entering into exclusive negotiations for the acquisition of the horse racing and sports betting site ZeTurf last September, the FDJ group is now authorized to offer “online circle games”, according to a decision by the National Authority for games (ANJ) published this Tuesday in the Official Journal.
A comprehensive offer
With the obtaining of this precious sesame, the group led by Stéphane Pallez will be able to offer its players an online poker offer. Since the early 2000s, FDJ has allowed its players to bet online on sporting events, but it did not yet have a dedicated offer for “online circle games”.
FDJ had been working behind the scenes for several months to obtain this authorization from the ANJ. As early as last spring, La Française des Jeux was looking for a communications officer who would have “the mission of promoting the new online poker room”. The job offer which betrayed the new intentions of the gaming operator in online poker was immediately deleted, as revealed by the specialized site ClubPoker.net at the end of last April.
The approval of the ANJ obtained on Tuesday, October 20 therefore formalizes the entry of the FDJ into the world of online poker. It is issued for a period of five years from this date and can be renewed. The Française des jeux offer will thus be accessible from its domain names “parionsweb.fr”, “parionsweb.fdj.fr” and enligne.parionssport.fdj.fr”.
A dynamic online market
For the FDJ, this approval allows it to increase its presence on a very dynamic online posting market. Between July and September, La Française des jeux observed a 35% increase in bets on its platforms to reach 643 million euros, or 13% of total bets now.
Over the whole of the third quarter, the leading operator of gambling and gambling in France achieved a turnover up 12% over one year, to 592 million euros. Revenue growth also reached 12% over the first nine months of the 2022 financial year, an increase which brought turnover to 1.81 billion euros.
This strong commercial dynamic has earned it the opportunity to raise its annual outlook at the same time. Thus, over the full year, FDJ now anticipates an increase in turnover of more than 8%, an EBITDA margin rate (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of around 24%, an improvement compared to the forecasts at the start of the year. As a reminder, the FDJ group initially forecast annual revenue for 2022 to increase by nearly 5% with an EBITDA margin of over 23.5%.
On the Paris Stock Exchange, the FDJ share price rose nearly 2% to 33.57 euros at the end of the morning. Driven by excellent results and a relevant digitization strategy, the stock has progressed well since its IPO, at a price of 19.50 euros for retail investors.
However, the action has suffered a significant setback since the opening of the European Commission in July 2021 of an investigation into the cash payment granted by the group in exchange for its exclusive rights. According to Citigroup’s calculations, the FDJ could have to pay 1.06 billion euros more than the amount paid during the privatization in November 2019.
Sabrina Sadgui – ©2022 BFM Bourse
Are you following this action?
Receive all the information about FDJ in real time: