Friends again: DAZN to launch French sportsbook
DAZN-Ligue 1 squabbles over, AFJEL, Super Group, SBC Summit &Co
Hello, on Gaming&Co, today
DAZNBet.fr set for French launch as TV prospects look up
Strength of illegal market on show at SBC Lisbon
AFJEL hits back at anti-gambling campaign
Big in Africa: Super Group’s strong Q3s
News shorts: Midnite, RubyPlay, EveryMatrix, Winamax-RTL poll, France vs. crypto passports
Subscribe to Gaming&Co!
DAZNBet.fr set to go live by end of month
Group’s French betting site to launch amid renewed confidence over TV subscription numbers
French zone: Streaming giant DAZN is set to consolidate its presence in France with the launch of DAZNBet.fr via a white label partnership with sports betting solution supplier Betconstruct at the end of the month. The agreement, reported on by Gaming&Co in January, comes amid a significant shift in public sentiment towards French football, with Ligue 1 subscriber numbers on the rise.
Mood shift: After months of struggles to drive interest last season, the mood music and subscriber prospects around France’s Ligue 1 have been re-energised by the new arrangement put in place by LFP Media over the summer.
The group’s CEO, Nicolas de Tavernost, told LFP’s board of directors this week that one month into the new football season, its in-house Ligue1+ OTT platform had tipped over the 1m subscriber mark, with 72% of customers committing to a full season.
DAZN, along with the likes of Prime Video, RMC Sport, Orange and D2C providers such as Apple and Samsung, is one of the Ligue1+ distributors of monthly subscriptions of around €15 and under €10 for under-16s, a major reduction on the €29.99 price point of last season.
Legal battles: DAZN’s Ligue 1 TV offering launched last year but had a very tough time as potential subscribers balked at the price. The group had to deal with highly negative consumer feedback on it off and went through a series of high profile disagreements with the French football authorities and clubs.
Subscriber numbers were never officially revealed but they were thought to be as low as 150,000-400,000 and French bookmakers warned this lack of interest in Ligue 1 matches was impacting betting volumes.
With subscribers now hitting the 1m mark and DAZNBet confirming its launch, the wider market will have more confidence over growth prospects.
White label, clear lines: Betconstruct operates in France via its VBet brand, but as regulations don’t white label providers to have access to customer accounts on its platform, the group obtained a new licence to operate DAZNbet.fr at the end of July.
Official confirmation of the launch is expected before the end of September.
The Conexus Group is dedicated to driving growth and success across the global iGaming industry, including helping land-based and retail casinos transition online. Our key brands — Pentasia, Partis, iGaming Academy, and Incline — deliver specialised human capital solutions, M&A advisory, strategic consulting, training and managed services.
Conexus builds long-term relationships and provides deep sector knowledge, including expertise in the French market, to solve complex challenges. By orchestrating these services under one group, Conexus offers clients a streamlined partnership for enhanced performance and sustainable success.
Contact us for more information.
SBC Summit: illegal market dominates discussions
A warm, dry and non-humid Lisbon with working AC provided a perfect late summer setting for the SBC Summit
Moanin and groanin’: G&Co was unsure if it had stumbled onto a complaint hotline, but the key theme of this week’s SBC Summit Lisbon’s executive panels was the unhappy impact the illegal market and inconsistent regulations were having on regulated operators. From Italy to the UK to the Netherlands, operators reiterated the need for stable regulatory environments that would enable them to compete with illegal brands. One French contact at least saw the funny side of it when he said it was a "good job there wasn't a panel on France".
No more joking around: On the European leaders’ panel, LiveScore CEO Sam Sadi was blunt when he commented that regulators’ objectives were often unclear, so if “we (operators) can’t understand their objectives, it’s difficult to collaborate with them or react” to their actions.
Affordability losses: Numerous UK-focused operators, especially small and midsize ones, G&Co spoke to during the event said they had lost significant volumes, up to 30% in some cases, due to affordability checks. All of them assumed those players, all of them high spending VIPs, had gone to crypto sportsbooks.
Illegal research: On that note, the UK Gambling Commission has just released the first in a series of reports looking into consumers’ motivations for playing on illegal websites. G&Co will write it up for next Wednesday.
LeoVegas CEO Mattias Wedar said operator-regulator perspectives were like “oil and water” and highlighted Ontario and Denmark as two jurisdictions “with a good model and willingness to engage”.
Pascal Chaffard, in his role as CSO and CFO of FDJ United, was, unsurprisingly considering his company’s background, more conciliatory. He said RG policies could be seen as a strong sign of innovation and had been introduced “because of the tremendous growth of the sector”.
“It’s followed a trend from society (wanting to see such measures in place), the industry has to evolve with it and claiming it’s political (even if it is sometimes) is not the right approach,” he added.
Panellists on the Dutch market were all critical of the tax hikes and regulatory changes introduced in recent years. Discussing protecting at-risk players, Eric Olders, CEO of JVH Gaming, proposed “focusing on vulnerable groups” and establishing a system where player risk assessments are shared, which is not allowed currently.
But with channelisation being such a key issue in many markets, Léon Voogt, MD of BetCity, noted that recent KSA figures revealed that 50% of Dutch GGR is generated by the black market, but 90% of players are on legal sites. “In other words, despite most players being on regulated sites, much larger GGR is generated on unregulated sites,” he said.
Final word: Asked what would have the most impact on regulated markets in the next five years, LiveScore's Sam Sadi replied: "illegal operators".
Founded in 2005, Play’n GO is a global leader in casino entertainment, known for iconic games like Book of Dead and Reactoonz. A pioneer in mobile gaming, the company delivers 350+ premium titles across 30+ regulated jurisdictions. Committed to a fun, responsible iGaming industry, Play’n GO collaborates with operator partners, regulators, and researchers to provide the world’s greatest casino gaming experience. Having expanded into music via its Play’n GO Music brand, Play’n GO is also a proud partner of MoneyGram Haas F1 Team. For more info, visit www.playngo.com
© Screen capture from Addictions France
AFJEL hits back at anti-gambling campaign
French iGaming trade group points out lobby group’s inaccurate claims
Lies spread halfway across the world…: French online gaming trade body AFJEL has pushed back against a campaign by the anti-gambling lobby group Addictions France that claimed that sports betting advertising “had not stopped increasing”, that media spend in 2024 was €670m and was set to reach €690m in 2025, featured no responsible gaming messaging and that online sports betting was one of the most important gambling verticals in France.
… while the truth is putting its socks on: In its reply AFJEL pointed out that ad spend by regulated operators was €144.5m in 2024 across radio, print, TV and digital channels and that the industry was subject to some of the strictest marketing regulations in Europe.
It added that, with GGR of €1.7bn in 2024, OSB represented one tenth of the overall French gambling market, “far behind lottery, scratchcards or land-based casino” figures, it added.
It also pointed out that the group’s campaign made no mention of the illegal operators targeting France. It said “four million players turn to the illegal iGaming market every month”, with 66% of them categorised as excessive gamblers, with the social cost reaching €5bn every year.
Counterproductive: AFJEL added that the “ongoing stigmatisation of legal operators based on preconceived ideas and approximations is completely counterproductive in a context where the authorities are struggling to stop the growth of the illegal market”.
Record performance for Super Group
Betway and Spin owner raises FY guidance after strong Q3
Super Group has raised its FY2025 revenue guidance from ‘over €1.9bn’ to €2.0bn- €2.1bn after a record performance in Q3. Revenue in the quarter rose 13% YoY to €402.9m, with Betway contributing €239.4m and Spin €163.5m. Adj.EBIDTA increased 14% to €83.9m, while monthly active customers climbed 22% to 4.7m.
Hitting the jackpot: At its Investor Day on Thursday, Super Group confirmed it remains on track to exit the US market by the end of 2025 and revealed plans to add Jackpot City to the Spanish market and launch in regulated markets in Ireland and Ontario, Canada, in the second half of 2026.
Analyst firm Macquarie said questions remain over whether Super Group can continue to build on its leading position in Africa and weather initial competition in regulating markets like Alberta and New Zealand, but added that the experience of the management team and the company's brand recognition “will go a long way to ensuring a result above current market expectations”.
Catena Media launches new sub-affiliate platform
Latest step in new strategy as company looks to rebuild
New streams: Catena Media has announced the launch of MRKTPLAYS.com, a sub-affiliation platform designed to connect affiliates with operators, as part of its wider efforts to diversify revenue streams and improve profitability.
The new platform, launched after a trial with beta partners, will give affiliates the tools to build their own networks through a service featuring “transparent commissions, reliable tracking and trusted support,” according to Catena.
News shorts
EveryMatrix has been awarded what it labelled its ‘largest-ever content aggregation deal’ by Bet365, providing the operator with access to its in-house SlotMatrix’s casino offering as well as games from more than 40 studios across regulated markets including the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Mexico.
Genius Sports has acquired the data and analytics specialist Sports Innovation Lab for an undisclosed amount. The group said the company’s customer behaviour and global sporting data will create the most “accurate and real-time fan activation platform in the world”.
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a social post from Midnite after ruling it would have “strong appeal” to under-18s. The group’s video on X featured AI-generated footage of Trent Alexander-Arnold delivering a “farewell speech” to former Liverpool teammates. Midnite suggested the post was editorial content not intended to promote betting, but the ASA judged it “directly connected” to gambling services.
RubyPlay has appointed Tsachi Maimon as CEO to spearhead its next growth phase. Maimon, who starts on October 1, brings nearly two decades of senior leadership in iGaming, including roles as CEO of Aspire Global and CSO at Aristocrat Interactive.
A Winamax-RTL poll on the new Champions League format has revealed that 75% of respondents were satisfied with the tournament set-up and 44% of them planned to follow the competition this season. Among the 1,000 French adults surveyed by Odoxa, 36% said PSG were favourites to win a second European title in two years, ahead of Real Madrid (19%) and Barcelona (14%).
LiveScore announced a new partnership with X and xAI this week aimed at integrating more real-time content from the social platform into its scores and betting apps.
France is considering refusing to recognise Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) licences granted by other EU countries, unless oversight is shifted to ESMA, the bloc’s markets regulator.
Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, president of the French regulator AMF, warned this week that some crypto firms are engaging in “regulatory shopping” by choosing jurisdictions with weaker standards to obtain the so-called crypto passports more easily. France, together with Italy and Austria, is concerned about inconsistent licensing practices undermining investor protection and market integrity.
Calendar
Results: 15 Oct: Entain, FDJ United, 23 Oct: Evolution, 24 Oct: Betsson
Contact
Get in touch with Jake Pollard to find out more about Gaming&Co: jake@gamingandco.info
Thanks for reading Gaming&Co!