Betsson Gets France Online Poker License, Plans Launch on Playtech's iPoker Network

Betsson France SA, the French joint venture of Swedish operator Betsson AB, received approval from France's gambling regulator on 15 October 2026 to offer online poker, and plans to launch the product on Playtech's iPoker network. A second decision the same day cleared the company to seat its players at tables shared with other European markets. The two decisions were published in France's Journal officiel on 23 October, according to Italian trade outlet Jamma, and the plans were first reported by the French newsletter Gaming & Co before NEXT.io covered them on 29 October.

The regulator is the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), which replaced the former online regulator ARJEL in 2020 and licenses every online gambling operator in France. Betsson becomes the ninth company licensed for online poker in the country. No launch date has been given.

What the ANJ approved

The approvals add poker to the sports betting license Betsson France has held since 2023. Jamma's account of the published decisions gives these terms.

The official list of licensed operators dated 19 May 2026 shows eight poker licensees before Betsson: B.E.S., Betclic, FDJ Online Betting and Gaming France, Hillside (New Media Malta), La Française des Jeux, PMU, Reel Malta and Winamax. On that list, Betsson France held only a fixed-odds sports betting approval.

Nadir Ounissi, the Betsson France partner whom NEXT.io and Jamma describe as the founder of Casino Secret, called the license "an important milestone for Betsson in France," as quoted by NEXT.io. He said the product would focus on customer service and responsible gaming.

Betsson's path into France

Betsson entered France through sports betting, not poker. The ANJ granted Betsson France SA license number 0061-PS-2023-09-21 on 21 September 2023, a five-year fixed-odds sports betting approval for betsson.fr, after an application filed in May 2023.

At the time, Betsson said its sportsbook would run on Sportradar, with player accounts on OMEGA Systems, and that the brand would go live in the fourth quarter of 2023. NEXT.io and Jamma date the start of Betsson's French sportsbook to the third quarter of 2024; Gamingo could not confirm the exact launch quarter from a company or regulator document. Because the sportsbook license runs from September 2023, it comes up for renewal in September 2028, three years before the new poker license.

Why Playtech's iPoker

Joining iPoker gives Betsson an existing player pool from day one. Playtech's network already serves La Française des Jeux (FDJ), the former state lottery, which signed up to iPoker in July 2023. Betsson told NEXT.io it chose the network for the quality of its product and its own poker experience elsewhere in Europe.

Online poker depends on traffic: a new site with few players cannot fill tournaments or keep cash tables running. Plugging into a network that already pools French players solves that problem in a way a standalone room would not.

The shared-liquidity piece

France is one of four countries that signed a convention in Rome on 6 July 2017 to let licensed poker operators share players across borders. The signatories were the regulators of France, Spain, Italy and Portugal.

Each French operator needs its own ANJ authorization to join. The regulator's template, seen in its May 2026 decision for bet365 operator Hillside, makes sharing conditional on the agreement of every regulator concerned and on approved poker software. Jamma notes that Betsson's French approval does not by itself open tables to Italian players. Shared pools are common in US online poker too, where BetMGM was cleared to combine Michigan and New Jersey poker players under an interstate compact.

What France allows online

France's online gambling law of 12 May 2010 licenses only three products: poker, sports betting and horse race betting. Online casino games such as slots and roulette are not legal, and the ANJ pursues unlicensed sites. The government held a consultation on online casino regulation in 2024, with land-based casinos pushing back, but the law has not changed.

Betsson rejected the idea that poker is a step toward casino. It told NEXT.io the decision reflects the current poker market and that any wider opening is for French lawmakers to decide. Earlier, chief executive Pontus Lindwall told Gaming & Co in April 2024 that casino regulation would be good for the industry, while saying there was no official sign it was coming. The regulated market itself is large; the ANJ reported a record €13.4 billion in French gambling revenue for 2023, and it has shown it will act against licensees, as when it fined Unibet €800,000 over a self-exclusion breach.

Betsson's third quarter, for context

The French poker news did not come from Betsson's earnings. The group's interim report, published on 22 October 2026, posted record quarterly revenue of €326.5 million, up 10% (8% organic), while EBITDA fell 23% to €63.4 million. Casino revenue rose 14% and sportsbook revenue 1%. The published summary of the report does not mention France or poker. Betsson has been reshaping its footprint for some time, from exiting US consumer-facing betting to adding licenses in Latin America.

What happens next

Betsson France still needs its poker software approved and the shared-table arrangement cleared by the other regulators before players from Spain or Portugal can join its games. A launch date for the iPoker-powered site has not been announced.

Status reviewed on 30 October 2026. License terms are taken from Jamma's account of the ANJ decisions published in the Journal officiel; the 2023 sports betting license, the 2017 liquidity convention and the pre-October poker licensee list come from ANJ documents and the official operator list. More business news and EMEA coverage.