Online poker in France is gradually losing its interest. Indeed, French players are no longer as enthusiastic as in 2010, the year when online poker was finally authorized on French territory. The figures collected by the Online Gaming Regulatory Authority (Arjel) show that the craze for the famous card game is decreasing. The stakes recorded in 2014 are much lower than those recorded in 2011, the boom year for online poker in France. However, players are still interested in tournaments. Indeed, registered entry fees are growing steadily.
However, online poker in France interests a large number of operators
In April 2010, the French market finally opened up to operators offering online poker. The operators in the sector were awaiting this authorization with great impatience. French players also hoped for this opening of the market. Moreover, many were already indulging in online poker even before he obtained this authorization. Eleven operators obtained approval from the Online Gaming Regulatory Authority (Arjel) when the market opened. Various sites are therefore positioned on this regulated market.
There is, among others, the Barrière Poker site, the result of collaboration between La Française des Jeux and the Barrière casinos. PMU is also interested in this new opportunity and creates PartyGaming. This opening of the market greatly interested investment groups and international operators. Thus, the Everest Poker site was launched by the Mangas Gaming group and the EurosportBet site (online poker and betting) by TF1. The English site Winamax, bought by Patrick Bruel (singer and professional poker player) and Marc Simoncini (founder of the Meetic site), is also in the race as well as PokerStars whose management of the subsidiary in France has been entrusted to Alexandre Balkany ( son of UMP deputy Patrick Balkany).
French players’ disaffection with online poker
At the very beginning, online poker was very popular with French players. In 2011, the stakes recorded for “cash games” reached 6.5 billion euros. For information, cash games are games played with chips corresponding to real money during which players can leave at any time. Since then, the figures recorded by the Arjel fall, the stakes in 2014 fall to less than 4.5 billion euros. The enthusiasm of French players for online poker is gradually fading.
In addition, the tournaments still arouse interest since it is noted that the registered entry fees are increasing. In 2014, Arjel recorded 1.5 billion euros for entry fees. Despite this sustained growth, the income generated by tournaments remains lower than that generated by cash game bets.
In short, French players are less and less present in online poker rooms, but they are still numerous to take an interest in the various poker tournaments.