ANJ licenses Betsson France for online poker and cross-border pooling
France's gambling regulator has granted Betsson France an online poker licence and cleared it to share liquidity with Italy, Spain and Portugal, as the French market's player base grows faster than spending per account.
France's gambling regulator, the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), has licensed Betsson France for online poker and approved its entry into the shared liquidity pool used by operators in Italy, Spain and Portugal, according to CasinoBeats.
The licence falls under the 'jeux de cercle' category that covers poker in French law, while the cross-border clearance relies on a provision found in Article 14 II of the gambling law passed on 12 May 2010, Law No 2010-476. France's official gazette, the Journal officiel, carried both decisions in its issue numbered JORF 0248 on 23 October 2026, months after Betsson lodged its application on 22 June 2026.
The authorisation runs for five years, is renewable, cannot be transferred, and confines the poker offer to the betsson.fr site. In a separate ruling numbered 2026-PR-120 and issued on 16 October 2026, the regulator signed off on the software running Betsson France SA's poker platform.
A regulator list of licensed operators dated 15 October 2026, published in the same Journal officiel issue, shows Betsson France SA now holding both a fixed-odds sports betting licence, which it has held since 21 September 2023, and the new poker licence.
Betsson intends to launch on Playtech's iPoker network, building on its existing sportsbook presence in France. Nadir Ounissi, founder of Casino Secret and a Betsson partner, described the licence as an important milestone for the company in the French market. Betsson has characterised the move as a response to the French poker market as it currently stands, rather than a wager on online casino being legalised in the country.
The shared liquidity pool traces back to a deal four regulators struck on 6 July 2017: France's ARJEL, which has since become the ANJ, together with Spain's gambling authority DGOJ, Italy's ADM and Portugal's SRIJ. Any pooling of tables across these markets needs sign-off from each regulator involved plus approved gaming software. Betsson France must keep the ANJ informed whenever its cross-border liquidity arrangement changes — whether a new partner joins or the deal is terminated.
Before it can go live, Betsson France must confirm to the ANJ that its data archiving system is operational. Its licence then runs until 15 October 2031.
The launch arrives as poker outperforms the wider regulated market in France. Revenue from French gambling overall, leaving out casinos and gaming clubs, came to €5.66bn in the first half of 2026 — just 0.5% ahead of the same period last year, well below the 4.1% rise recorded the year before that. Poker revenue climbed over the same six months, recovering from a flat first half of 2025, with Sit & Go tournaments alone bringing in €202m, roughly 70% of the segment's total.
Across the full year 2025, poker revenue totalled €525m, a 6.5% rise that followed a 2.1% drop in 2024 — and tournament formats accounted for the entire year-on-year gain.
Growth in players is outpacing growth in spending. Average revenue per active account fell to €126 in the first half of 2026, down from €153 a year earlier, according to European Gaming. Active poker accounts reached 2.5 million in 2025, up 16.5%, while unique players climbed to 1.9 million, up 15.1% — the fastest growth of any of the three regulated online segments.