{"id":330909,"date":"2024-09-18T08:32:59","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T13:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=330909"},"modified":"2024-09-18T09:48:36","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T14:48:36","slug":"2-7b-kindred-group-takeover-by-french-lottery-giant-fdj-approved-with-caveat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2-7b-kindred-group-takeover-by-french-lottery-giant-fdj-approved-with-caveat\/","title":{"rendered":"$2.7B Kindred Group Takeover by French Lottery Giant FDJ Approved — With Caveat"},"content":{"rendered":"

French antitrust regulators have approved the proposed $2.7 billion acquisition<\/a> of Stockholm-listed online gambling giant the Kindred Group by Fran\u00e7aise des Jeux (FDJ), France\u2019s lottery monopoly.<\/p>\n

\"FDJ,
FDJ will likely acquire Kindred to create a \u201cEuropean gaming champion\u201d but it must keep its monopoly business completely separate from the new brands. (Image: FDJ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, regulator l\u2019Autorit\u00e9 de la Concurrence (the Competition Authority) insisted there must be a clear separation between FDJ\u2019s commercial activities and its monopolistic business. That means FDJ, a former state-owned corporation, won’t be permitted to cross-sell Kindred\u2019s products to its lottery and sports betting customers.<\/p>\n

\n

Moreover, it must not \u201cshare a common root or logo with the FDJ or\u00a0<\/strong>Parions Sport Point de Vente\u00a0brands, or any other brand under which FDJ markets its monopoly games in France,\u201d l\u2019Autorit\u00e9 de la Concurrence said. Players will have to sign up separately for accounts with FDJ and Kindred brands.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Failure to do so would give FDJ an unfair advantage over rival commercial operators, the regulator concluded.<\/p>\n

Monopoly Money <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Kindred, formerly Unibet Group, owns some of Europe\u2019s best-known online casino and sports betting brands, including Unibet and 32Red.<\/p>\n

FDJ, the largest gambling operator in France, was privatized in 2018 when the French government sold off 50% of its ownership. In November 2023, the company acquired Ireland\u2019s national lottery operator, Premier Lotteries Ireland, making it the second-largest lottery operator in Europe and the fourth-largest globally.<\/p>\n

In October last year, FDJ completed its acquisition of online horserace betting site ZEturf, the only segment of the gambling market it had not yet entered. ZEturf is also subject to separation from the company\u2019s monopolistic brands.<\/p>\n

\n

ZEturf\u2019s main competitor is, ironically, France\u2019s retail horse race betting monopoly Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU). PMU was fined \u20ac900K by l\u2019Autorit\u00e9 de la Concurrence in 2020 for failing to separate its land-based and online customer bases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That followed a complaint by ZEturf that PMU\u2019s co-mingling of the two channels helped it gain an unfair advantage over other operators offering horse racing pools.<\/p>\n

\u2018Gaming Champion\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Following news of the Kindred takeover bid in January, FDJ Chair St\u00e9phane Pallez said the deal would create a \u201cEuropean gaming champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a somewhat scathing note, Regulus Partners suggested Kindred\u2019s real attraction was that \u201cit allows excess cash flow generated from a privatized state monopoly to be pumped into a ready-made competitive platform which the sclerotic, statist FDJ failed organically to create.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French antitrust regulators have approved the proposed $2.7 billion acquisition of Stockholm-listed online gambling giant the Kindred Group by Fran\u00e7aise des Jeux (FDJ), France\u2019s lottery monopoly. However, regulator l\u2019Autorit\u00e9 de la Concurrence (the Competition Authority) insisted there must be a clear separation between FDJ\u2019s commercial activities and its monopolistic business. That means FDJ, a former […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":330910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32093],"tags":[89586,82074,92347],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n$2.7B Kindred Group Takeover by French Lottery Giant FDJ Approved with Caveat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FDJ takeover of Kindred Group approved by l\u2019Autorit\u00e9 de la Concurrence but FDJ must separate monopoly business from commercial side.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2-7b-kindred-group-takeover-by-french-lottery-giant-fdj-approved-with-caveat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"$2.7B Kindred Group Takeover by French Lottery Giant FDJ Approved with Caveat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FDJ takeover of Kindred Group approved by l\u2019Autorit\u00e9 de la Concurrence but FDJ must separate monopoly business from commercial side.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2-7b-kindred-group-takeover-by-french-lottery-giant-fdj-approved-with-caveat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-18T13:32:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-18T14:48:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/FDJ.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2-7b-kindred-group-takeover-by-french-lottery-giant-fdj-approved-with-caveat\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2-7b-kindred-group-takeover-by-french-lottery-giant-fdj-approved-with-caveat\/\",\"name\":\"$2.7B Kindred Group Takeover by French Lottery Giant FDJ Approved with Caveat\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2-7b-kindred-group-takeover-by-french-lottery-giant-fdj-approved-with-caveat\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2-7b-kindred-group-takeover-by-french-lottery-giant-fdj-approved-with-caveat\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/FDJ.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-18T13:32:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-09-18T14:48:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"FDJ takeover of Kindred Group approved by l\u2019Autorit\u00e9 de la Concurrence but FDJ must separate monopoly business from commercial side.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2-7b-kindred-group-takeover-by-french-lottery-giant-fdj-approved-with-caveat\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2-7b-kindred-group-takeover-by-french-lottery-giant-fdj-approved-with-caveat\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/2-7b-kindred-group-takeover-by-french-lottery-giant-fdj-approved-with-caveat\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/FDJ.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/FDJ.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":675,\"caption\":\"FDJ will likely acquire Kindred to create a \u201cEuropean gaming champion\u201d but it must keep its monopoly business completely separate from the new brands. 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