France clears Banijay Gaming’s acquisition of 33-casino JOA group
The Autorité’s first review of an online and land-based gambling tie-up found no harmful conglomerate effects, including in poker.
France’s Autorité de la concurrence cleared Lov Group’s acquisition of exclusive control of JOA Group without conditions on 4 November 2026. JOA operates 33 casinos across France. The phase-one decision 26-DCC-215 identifies Lov Group as the notifying party and records the transaction as an unconditional authorisation.
The decision matters because it is the Autorité’s first review of a transaction creating an operator active in both France’s online and land-based gambling channels. It assessed whether Betclic and JOA could use their combined activities to pursue an omnichannel strategy, including commercial bundling, but found the deal unlikely to harm competition.
Poker was the relevant link
The parties had no direct overlap in the existing French markets. Lov Group was not active in France’s land-based casino market, while JOA operates exclusively in France’s casino industry. The Autorité also declined to assess a future online-casino market because online casinos remain prohibited in France and their legalisation was not sufficiently plausible at the date of the decision.
It did, however, treat online poker and land-based casino activity, particularly table games including poker, as potentially related markets. The investigation consulted competitors and France’s gambling authority, the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), and found that poker players tend to move between online platforms and land-based casinos. The Autorité said the increasingly younger age profile of casino customers was contributing to convergence between the two player bases.
The authority nevertheless concluded that the transaction was unlikely to produce harmful conglomerate effects, taking account of the parties’ market shares, significant competitors in their respective markets and poker’s limited contribution to JOA’s overall business.
No conditions attached
JOA’s casino revenue accounts for the large majority of its business. Its casino complexes also contain restaurants, bars and hotels operated under public service concession agreements. The transaction therefore brings Betclic’s online sports betting, casino games, poker and horse betting activities into the same group as a substantial French casino operator, but the Autorité imposed no remedies.
The decision is subject to appeal. The Autorité said the full French text would be made available soon.
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