FDJ acquisition of Kindred Group gets regulatory clearance

La Française des Jeux’s (FDJ) acquisition of Kindred Group has officially been cleared by the country’s competition regulator, the Autorité de la concurrence.

The authority was notified of the plan in May but subsequently identified some potential risks to competition in the French gaming market. FDJ has now provided the regulator with behavioural remedies to these concerns.

The proposed transaction would take place a few months after FDJ strengthened its position in the online betting sector with the acquisition of ZEturf. This brought FDJ into the online horse race betting market, the only market in the online gambling sector in which the group was not yet present, and increased its market share in online sports betting.

This year, the group reported that its H1 revenue climbed 11% YoY to €1.4bn thanks to contributions from Zeturf and Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI) – the latter also purchased by FDJ last year – and a 15% rise in its online betting and gaming activities to €294m that were boosted by “exceptionally favourable” sports results.

The Zeturf and PLI acquisitions helped the group’s digital revenues rise 40% to €201m (+25% like-for-like) thanks to an increase in player numbers, and digital’s share of group revenues is now at 15%.

Regarding the Kindred takeover, FDJ has made a new brand separation commitment which will see all competitive games eventually be marketed under one or more brands specific to these games.

This means that these games will not share a common root or logo with the FDJ or Parions Sport Point de Vente brands, or any other brand under which FDJ markets its monopoly games in France.