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Credit: JOA Groupe - JOA.FR
Jake Pollard
Jake Pollard views Banijay Gaming’s acquisition of JOA Groupe, as more than a home market land-grab as EuroNext giant Banijay brings its influence to play in France’s long-standing and unsettled debate on online casino.
The acquisition of France’s second largest casino operator JOA Groupe by Betclic parent company Banijay Gaming places the French online sports betting leader in a prime spot to push for online casino regulation in its home market
There are other reasons behind Banijay’s decision to agree to acquire JOA, such as Betclic moving into live poker thanks to JOA’s 33 casino resorts, while timing has also been fortuitous. JOA’s private equity owners, Blackstone and Kings Park Capital, had been looking for an exit for some time.
The deal is expected to be completed in the second half of the year, when financial disclosures should also reveal how much Banijay paid for a group that recorded revenues of €430m in 2025. Competition and regulatory authorities will go over the deal with a fine comb, but it’s difficult to see on what grounds they could object to it since the verticals and core products are completely distinct currently.
From a regulatory development perspective however, it is hard to look beyond the fact that the deal puts Banijay in a unique position: as a spearhead to argue for online operators and as one of the top three land-based operators, able to influence a range of key regulatory and commercial conversations.
The operation could also be interpreted as an admission that the debate around iCasino regulation had reached an impasse. Banijay president Nicolas Béraud’s repeated calls for legalising the vertical have not been answered and October 2024’s regulatory initiative by Michel Barnier’s government was blocked by Casinos de France, the trade syndicate for the country’s largest casino groups; there has been no movement to speak of on that front in recent months.
This latest deal changes all that and also provides further perspective on JOA Groupe’s CEO Laurent Lassiaz’s recent comments on the threat, or lack thereof, posed by online casino to land-based operators.
Questions abound
Of course normal caveats apply, but inevitable questions crop up when looking at the agreement. CDF’s starting position until now has been to adopt a wait and see approach: “If the government decides to move ahead with online casino regulation, CDF will then push for its JADE project” has been its go-to response whenever it’s been asked about the optic. But Banijay’s arrival means a key CDF member is now actively pro-regulation of the vertical.
Can we therefore expect to see CDF make a concerted push for its JADE project?
How does CDF’s other major members Barrière, Partouche and Tranchant, which have not always had the best relations with France online operators’ union AFJEL of which Béraud is president; view the arrival of France’s leading online operator within their leadership structures?
Is the deal a mark of Banijay’s pragmatism and that it saw no other way to influence the debate?
What would be the timeline of a regulatory push seeking to implement JADE?
Good Vibes for Casino
On the whole, CDF has been positive about the deal, Fabrice Paire, president of Groupe Partouche and VP of CDF, asked SBC and Gaming&Co to run his comments in full, which we’re happy to do. He said:
Fabrice Paire – Partouche
“JOA is a great company and is continuing on its journey with a new shareholder who, like the previous one, has strong links to the gaming industry and understands this sector. This is a positive sign for our sector, and for our land-based operations, as major players are showing interest, committing to the sector and investing in it. We are therefore a source of interest and have positive prospects, both within the region and beyond.
“Blackstone already had the capacity to engage JOA in online activities (via JOA’s sportsbook activities which ceased operating in 2023), so this is nothing new; and in France, other land-based casino operators, together with their shareholders, already have the experience and expertise to consider this prospect.
“French casino operators are campaigning, in the event of (online casino) legalisation, for the JADE model, which would allow land-based operators to expand their activities online, in line with what has been done in Belgium and Switzerland; there is a consensus on this, and I cannot imagine that Laurent Lassiaz has any interest other than promoting JADE.”
Another important point to note is that Banijay brings true online expertise, scale and reach to the table. Should JADE be adopted, it will have a ready-made and extensive database of betting and poker customers to market to.
Who is watching who
The other key actor in this play is FDJ United. Its financial heft, its lottery activities alone generated around €6.5bn in 2025, or nearly half France’s total gambling revenues in 2025; give it huge regulatory and lobbying power.
How would it react if it suddenly saw CDF push for the implementation of its JADE project?
Would it look to acquire a casino group to be part of the first wave of regulated iCasino?
And, of course, to FDJ can be added international casino conglomerates, who would look at the market with renewed interest.
During his hearing before taking his post, ANJ’s new President Pascal Chèvremont called for a full parliamentary debate on iCasino regulation, rather than the issue being added as an amendment into a budgetary text, so that all perspectives could be heard.
It’s also interesting to note that all the industry sources this reporter contacted were unwilling to speculate on how future events would potentially unfold and said it was just too early to know or predict how things would turn out.
As we all know… speculation is impossible to avoid when such a major deal takes place in such an important market, but hopefully Banijay’s latest move will give French stakeholders the opportunity to put their case for (and against) the regulation of a vertical that has enabled illegal operators to flourish for years.
Banijay’s JOA deal returns spotlight to French iCasino
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Jake Pollard views Banijay Gaming’s acquisition of JOA Groupe, as more than a home market land-grab as EuroNext giant Banijay brings its influence to play in France’s long-standing and unsettled debate on online casino.
The acquisition of France’s second largest casino operator JOA Groupe by Betclic parent company Banijay Gaming places the French online sports betting leader in a prime spot to push for online casino regulation in its home market
There are other reasons behind Banijay’s decision to agree to acquire JOA, such as Betclic moving into live poker thanks to JOA’s 33 casino resorts, while timing has also been fortuitous. JOA’s private equity owners, Blackstone and Kings Park Capital, had been looking for an exit for some time.
The deal is expected to be completed in the second half of the year, when financial disclosures should also reveal how much Banijay paid for a group that recorded revenues of €430m in 2025. Competition and regulatory authorities will go over the deal with a fine comb, but it’s difficult to see on what grounds they could object to it since the verticals and core products are completely distinct currently.
From a regulatory development perspective however, it is hard to look beyond the fact that the deal puts Banijay in a unique position: as a spearhead to argue for online operators and as one of the top three land-based operators, able to influence a range of key regulatory and commercial conversations.
The operation could also be interpreted as an admission that the debate around iCasino regulation had reached an impasse. Banijay president Nicolas Béraud’s repeated calls for legalising the vertical have not been answered and October 2024’s regulatory initiative by Michel Barnier’s government was blocked by Casinos de France, the trade syndicate for the country’s largest casino groups; there has been no movement to speak of on that front in recent months.
This latest deal changes all that and also provides further perspective on JOA Groupe’s CEO Laurent Lassiaz’s recent comments on the threat, or lack thereof, posed by online casino to land-based operators.
Questions abound
Of course normal caveats apply, but inevitable questions crop up when looking at the agreement. CDF’s starting position until now has been to adopt a wait and see approach: “If the government decides to move ahead with online casino regulation, CDF will then push for its JADE project” has been its go-to response whenever it’s been asked about the optic. But Banijay’s arrival means a key CDF member is now actively pro-regulation of the vertical.
Good Vibes for Casino
On the whole, CDF has been positive about the deal, Fabrice Paire, president of Groupe Partouche and VP of CDF, asked SBC and Gaming&Co to run his comments in full, which we’re happy to do. He said:
“JOA is a great company and is continuing on its journey with a new shareholder who, like the previous one, has strong links to the gaming industry and understands this sector. This is a positive sign for our sector, and for our land-based operations, as major players are showing interest, committing to the sector and investing in it. We are therefore a source of interest and have positive prospects, both within the region and beyond.
“Blackstone already had the capacity to engage JOA in online activities (via JOA’s sportsbook activities which ceased operating in 2023), so this is nothing new; and in France, other land-based casino operators, together with their shareholders, already have the experience and expertise to consider this prospect.
“French casino operators are campaigning, in the event of (online casino) legalisation, for the JADE model, which would allow land-based operators to expand their activities online, in line with what has been done in Belgium and Switzerland; there is a consensus on this, and I cannot imagine that Laurent Lassiaz has any interest other than promoting JADE.”
Another important point to note is that Banijay brings true online expertise, scale and reach to the table. Should JADE be adopted, it will have a ready-made and extensive database of betting and poker customers to market to.
Who is watching who
The other key actor in this play is FDJ United. Its financial heft, its lottery activities alone generated around €6.5bn in 2025, or nearly half France’s total gambling revenues in 2025; give it huge regulatory and lobbying power.
During his hearing before taking his post, ANJ’s new President Pascal Chèvremont called for a full parliamentary debate on iCasino regulation, rather than the issue being added as an amendment into a budgetary text, so that all perspectives could be heard.
It’s also interesting to note that all the industry sources this reporter contacted were unwilling to speculate on how future events would potentially unfold and said it was just too early to know or predict how things would turn out.
As we all know… speculation is impossible to avoid when such a major deal takes place in such an important market, but hopefully Banijay’s latest move will give French stakeholders the opportunity to put their case for (and against) the regulation of a vertical that has enabled illegal operators to flourish for years.