Betsson France has become the ninth operator licensed by France’s gambling regulator to offer online poker, after securing approval from the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) to launch a Playtech-powered platform. The licence also permits Betsson France to share player liquidity with poker operators in Spain, Italy and Portugal, extending its regulated presence beyond sports betting for the first time since entering the French market.
What happened
The board of France’s Autorité nationale des jeux adopted two decisions on 15 October 2026.
The regulator licensed Betsson France for online poker and approved shared tables with Spain, Italy and Portugal, subject to conditions.
Betsson France had applied for the poker licence on 22 June 2026.
The licence runs for five years, until 15 October 2031, and is renewable.
The second ANJ decision authorised Betsson France to take part in the international liquidity-sharing system set out in an agreement signed in July 2017 by the regulators of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Betsson will run the new poker product on Playtech’s established iPoker network rather than building its own platform.
The poker approval builds on an existing foothold in France.
Betsson France has held an online sports betting licence since 21 September 2023.
That sportsbook product launched in the third quarter of 2024 through a venture involving gaming veteran Nadir Ounissi, who holds the title of partner at Betsson France.
Ounissi described the poker licence as marking
“an important milestone for Betsson in France.”
Asked whether the move anticipated a wider opening of France’s market to online casino games, Betsson said the launch was
“based on the French poker market as it stands today, rather than expectations of future regulatory change.”
Why it matters
The licence adds a second regulated vertical for Betsson France in a market where product options remain tightly restricted.
France’s competitive remote licensing framework covers online sports betting, horse betting and poker, with online slots and other casino games not authorised.
Within that narrow set of permitted products, winning a poker authorisation is a meaningful commercial step rather than a routine licence renewal.
For Playtech, the deal extends the reach of its iPoker network into another regulated jurisdiction, reinforcing the platform’s position as a go-to supplier for operators entering ring-fenced poker markets. For Betsson, cross-selling poker to an existing sports betting customer base in France offers a low-cost way to lift lifetime value without the acquisition spend of a standalone market entry.
Affiliates with French-facing traffic gain another regulated poker product to promote within a betting operator’s ecosystem, rather than a separate standalone poker brand. That matters for keyword and content strategy in a market where casino-style offers cannot legally be advertised, narrowing the available player-acquisition angles to sports betting, horse racing and poker content.
The bigger picture
France’s online gambling regime remains one of Europe’s most restrictive, with casino games excluded entirely and poker liquidity ring-fenced unless operators secure specific cross-border approvals of the kind Betsson has now obtained. The move sits alongside a broader pattern of operators methodically working through licensing processes market by market, similar to the recent licensing approvals granted to ComeOn and SuomiVeto in Finland, rather than relying on rapid multi-vertical rollouts seen in more liberalised markets.
For Betsson, the French poker licence reflects a steady build-out strategy that mirrors its approach elsewhere in Europe, adding verticals incrementally once a local sports betting base is established. With nine operators now holding poker authorisations in France, competition for the limited regulated player pool is set to intensify, particularly among those able to offer cross-border liquidity through agreements such as the Spain-Italy-Portugal pool Betsson has joined.
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