First ‘legal’ French online poker tournament takes place

The first ‘legal’ online poker tournament in France took place yesterday, just hours after licensed companies were given the green light by regulator ARJEL to legally offer online poker to French customers.

The tournament was hosted by Bwin, who was awarded a licence last month, but French authorities had forced poker operators to wait until now after sports betting was first allowed in early June.

ARJEL has now issued a total of eight online poker licences to local French operators PMU, BetClic, Everest Ppker, Chili Poker, Partouche, Sajoo, Eurosportbet and Winamax.

As well as Bwin, two other international operators, Pokerstars and Partygaming, have been granted licences.

Co-chief executive of Bwin, Norbet Teufelberger, said: “As with sports betting, we were able to launch poker at the earliest possible opportunity because we were well prepared. We have thus achieved our goal of becoming the very first mover in the newly regulated French market.”