Ladbrokes, French TV giant Canal+ form joint venture
Ladbrokes has formed a joint venture online betting and gaming service to target French betters with French TV giant Canal+, the biggest premium pay TV provider in France and operator of the Canal+ Sport channel, set to take advantage of the new egaming regulation passed by the French parliament this week.
LADBROKES has formed a joint venture (JV) online betting and gaming service to target French betters with French TV giant Canal+, the biggest premium pay TV provider in France and operator of the Canal+ Sport channel.
The site, which is the British bookmaker’s first move into France, is scheduled for launch later this year subject to the new egaming regulations approved by the French parliament this week, which will open the French sports betting market to competition.
Ladbrokes’ interests in the JV will be managed by Ladbrokes managing director of remote betting and gaming John O’Reilly, who said: “Canal+ is a brand that is synonymous with sport in France. We believe that there is an opportunity to build a good business in France over time as the market and regulation develop.”
Canal+ is the leading premium broadcaster in France and leading distributor of pay TV offers, with revenues of 4.5bn and 12.5 million subscriptions, including 10.8 million in France. It boasts former employees including Mangas Gaming new vice chairwoman Isabelle Parize and new chief executive Nicolas Beraud, founder of Betclic.
The new site will launch under an as yet undetermined name reflecting the association with Canal+, which will provide access to media content, its brand and experience of operating in the French market.
The 50:50 JV, which is not for a fixed period, will see each partner agree to provide 2.25m as initial funding to JVCo, the simplified joint stock company which will operate the JV.
As part of the deal, Ladbrokes has agreed that whilst it is a shareholder in the company and for two years after, it will not operate any other egaming business in France.
Taking on the incumbents
The new venture will see Ladbrokes and Canal+ take on current monopolies La Francaise Des Jeux (FDJ), the French national lottery operator and the second largest lottery operator in the world, and Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU), the largest horse racing monopoly in Europe, who boast significant brand recognition in France and have both been gearing up for the new egaming regulation.
FDJ signed a deal with telecoms giant Orange this month for Orange to incorporate betting into its French portals, and in February signed a sponsorship deal with TF1, France’s largest commercial TV channel and acquired LVS, the supplier that FDJ signed to provide its fixed-odds betting platform in January.
FDJ also signed casino group Barrière to launch online poker that month after signing a licensing deal for poker with developer CyberArts in May 2009.
PMU signed PartyGaming to provide it with a poker product last month, after in November signing Paddy Power to provide it with fixed-odds risk management and pricing tools.
Other strong brands in France likely to loom large in the new market include SPS Betting, the egaming firm operating Eurosportsbet, part of the Bouygues conglomerate which owns the Eurosport TV channel; and Bwin, which has a media deal with the owner of L’Equipe publisher Amaury Group as well as a strong brand in its own right.
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