Relax Gaming to launch in France with Kindred
Casino games and platform supplier Relax Gaming is to launch its poker product in the regulated French market via its partnership with long-term customer Kindred Group.
Relax will launch its full poker offering in the country at the start of the second quarter, with its services to include new poker product, ‘HexaPro’.
Unveiled in December, HexaPro features a game format where the customer can win up to 1,000 times their stake in minutes, with only two opponents. Relax has said this poker variant is hugely popular in the French market.
“We have gained success with this product in many of Kindred’s other markets already and I’m very excited with the opportunity to give even more players the chance to enjoy the Relax Gaming poker experience, with a foundation built to be fun, fair and exciting,” Relax COO, Martin Stalros, said.
Daniel Eskola, CEO at Relax, added: “We remain committed to the continued delivery of superior quality products to Kindred, but we’re opening the door for product growth further down the line by adding more operators and jurisdictions as demand dictates.”
Relax is the latest supplier to confirm its entrance into the French market, with SBTech having also announced its move in November of last year. At the time, SBTech said it had a strong pipeline of well-known operators ready to use its services in the country.
France enjoyed year-on-year growth across all three legal igaming verticals in 2018, with poker rake for cash games up 5% to €258m (£220.9m/$293.2m). Total revenue for the market was up 25% to €1.2bn.
However, national regulator L’Autorité de régulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL) said despite this growth, the market remains fragile due to marginal growth in the poker and horse racing betting verticals.
Reports suggest that France could switch to a revenue-, rather than turnover-based, tax on sports betting, to help address the situation, bringing the market in line with the majority of other European jurisdictions.
Image: Santeri Viinamäki
