- Winamax is expected to offer sports betting alongside its French regulated online poker room in the near future.
- The company has been advertising for staff for its “upcoming launch and development of Pole Sport Winamax Paris.”
- The addition of sports betting revenues, assuming that Winamax can make a success of the venture, can only help with the sustainability of its poker operations.
Winamax is expected to offer sports betting alongside its French regulated online poker room in the near future.
Online poker in the French regulated market is a business that is hard to sustain with gaming taxes at the equivalent of 37% of revenues.
The company has been advertising for staff in several positions for its “upcoming launch and development of a Winamax sportsbetting center.”
Recruiting interviews start at the end of April, so launch may be a few months off—no public dates for the launch have been released.
Unlike poker, sports betting has been a profitable business line for French operators under ARJEL regulation. Q1 figures for 2014 show 22% year on year growth whereas poker continued to fall—down 12% compared to Q1 of 2013.
Full Tilt has also recently made the move away from being a pure poker site, having already launched casino games, with more to come. For the major gaming operators like Playtech, Betfair and bwin.party, poker revenues rarely represent more than a fifth of their business.
The addition of sports betting revenues, assuming that Winamax can make a success of the venture, can only help with the sustainability of its poker operations.
