With the liberalisation of the French online gambling market now in sight on January 2010, it is clear that the state gambling monopoly Francaise des Jeux is preparing to meet competition head on through a series of agreements and promotional deals.
For an online bingo operation through Sweden’s NYX Interactive, follows an announcement a few days ago that the US poker software provider Cyberarts is to provide FdeJ with online poker facilities, probably in free-to-play form initially, but gearing up to full real money action when the market opens.
In the NYX deal, an online bingo site could be up for promotional purposes within the next week or two. The Swedish provider is well-versed in handling state-controlled entities, having worked closer to home on a bingo product for Svenska Spel, the Swedish government’s gambling monopoly.
Side games in the FdeJ deal will include lottery and scratchcard-type products, as French legislation will not presently allow casino games such as roulette and blackjack.
