Q4 Recovery Leaves French Poker Revenues Marginally Down on the Year Q4 Recovery Leaves French Poker Revenues Marginally Down on the Year
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Key Takeaways
  • French market consolidates with only 16 operators still active in the French market.
  • Revenues down 5% year on year, compared to 19% increase across all online gambling.
  • Active poker player numbers are up 2%.

French regulator ARJEL has released its year end report for 2012. Overall, total gaming revenues are up 19%. Revenues from poker are down 5%.

Cash game poker suffered the most as high taxes encouraged players to switch to tournaments. Cash game activity fell 5% while tournament registrations increased by 21%.

The number of licensed operators serving the French market poker market has declined from 23 to 16, as smaller players are edged out by the financial muscle needed to maintain market share in a market with very thin profit margins.

Europoker and PKR were the only two operators granted new French licenses during 2012.

Overall, the number of online poker players at regulated sites increased by 2% during the year to just over 1.7m. According to industry figures, worldwide traffic declined during 2012, implying that poker’s popularity has remained strong in France.