France Issues Online Gambling Licenses on Schedule

June 10, 2010 | News Category: Gaming Law

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On Tuesday this week, the French online gambling market announced the 11 online gambling operators that have been granted licenses to operate in France. In total, 17 licenses were awarded to 11 operators.

The French online gambling regulator, ARJEL had promised that the first licenses would be granted ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament. The World Cup is set to kick off tomorrow, which means that the licenses were granted just three days before the popular international sporting event.

The licenses that have been awarded are for horse racing, online poker, and also allow betting on organized sports events. Those operators that already have licenses to accept either football, or all sports bets, were already allowed to begin accepting bets from French residents as soon as the licenses were issued. This means that those who live in France, and wish to place bets on World Cup games, are now able to do so, with a choice of where to place their bets.

Online poker operators, however, were informed that they are not allowed to begin operations until the end of June, while a complaint lodged with the European Commission by Malta is being dealt with.

ARJEL received 35 applications for licensing, and has accepted only 17 at this time. Although for now, the others have been rejected, Jean-Francois Vilotte, the ARJEL President explains: “There were 35 requests for licenses and we have retained 17 at this stage. None have been formally rejected.”

The following is a list of the online gambling operators that have been approved by ARJEL at this time:

BetClic has received licenses for poker, fixed odds and pool sports betting, and horse racing.

Beturf has received a license for horse racing.

BES SAS (A Bwin subsidiary) - has received licenses for poker, fixed odds and pool sports betting.

Bwin/Amaury Groupe have received licenses for poker, and fixed odds and pool sports betting.

EverestPoker has received a license for poker.

France Pari has received a license for sports pool betting.

La Française des Jeux has received a license for sports fixed odds and pool betting.

Iliad Gaming/ChiliGaming have received a license for sports fixed odds and pool betting.

SPS Betting has received licenses for poker, and for sports fixed odds and pool betting.

Table 14 has received a license for poker.

Conspicuous by their absence from the list are large companies are Microgaming and 888 Holdings, which had teamed up for their application, and also Party Gaming. Vilotte reiterated that there were a number of reasons that not all the applicants who still stand a chance of being granted licenses were accepted at this time.

France has a long history as a gambling monopoly. In 1539, King Francois issued an edict that made online gambling a state monopoly.

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