FDJ United reported declines in both revenue and GGR as tax increases and lottery underperformance took their toll across H1.
FDJ released its H1 results on Wednesday, revealing a 4.5% drop in revenue to €1.78 billion, while GGR also dipped 1.3% to €4.31 billion.
Stéphane Pallez, CEO and chairwoman of FDJ, attributed the financial falls to increased taxation in some of the company’s key markets, namely France, Romania, the UK and the Netherlands.
Pallez said H1 revenue was hit with an impact of approximately €52 million in gaming tax increases.
Further explaining the declines was an underwhelming performance from FDJ’s lottery sector, which reported a 2.1% GGR drop in H1 to €2.98 billion, while its revenue also fell 4% to €1.02 billion.
“This underperformance is due to the significantly lower number and amounts of major Euromillions jackpots compared to 2025 and, in the second quarter, lower traffic at points of sale, largely due to exceptional heatwaves,” FDJ’s earning’s release stated.
Retail sports betting also underperformed across the first half of 2026, with GGR edging down 1.1% to €450 million and revenue falling 2.9% to €218 million.
Despite FDJ’s H1 issues, Pallez retained a positive outlook, explaining: “Backed by solid fundamentals and a robust financial structure, FDJ United continues to invest in innovation, the attractiveness of its product portfolio and the acceleration of its transformation in order to return to a path of sustainable, profitable and value-creating growth.”
Online performance in line with FDJ expectations
Despite FDJ’s tax, lottery and retail sports betting struggles, the company described its online betting and gaming unit as performing “in line with expectations”.
The unit’s H1 GGR was stable at €702 million, although its revenue declined 7.4% to €431 million.
France and Scandinavia led the online betting and gaming unit’s performance.
Excluding the Netherlands and the UK, the unit’s GGR surged 6.6% with revenue also edging up by 0.6%.
FDJ said its online business in the Netherlands was continuing to improve despite the challenging environment. Its Unibet brand’s 4.1% GGR decline in Q2 was a marked improvement on the 15% plummet posted in Q1.
The outlook was less optimistic in the UK, however, with FDJ stating the “situation remains difficult”.
In April, after FDJ released its Q1 results, gaming and betting chief Pascal Chaffard said FDJ had no intention of withdrawing its online betting business from the UK.
“For me, there is absolutely no question of getting out of the UK,” he declared. “The top priority is to fix this problem, and it’s more a question of some quarters, maybe not one quarter, [but] some quarters [more than] than years to get there, frankly.”
The company has initiated plans to implement “targeted task forces” to enhance collaboration and improve performance in the UK and Netherlands.
FY2026 guidance tweaked
In its results FDJ hinted at a review of its Kindred business’ market portfolio , raising the question of whether its situation in the UK could change despite Chaffard’s previous comments on the company’s intentions to remain in the market.
On the post-results call, Pallez was asked for more detail on what the market portfolio review could entail.
“It’s really aimed at investing our money where we think we can get a good return in terms of profitable growth,” she outlined. “There is not any potential decision on exit.
“It’s really investing where we believe there is a good return. We are, however, of course, looking at all our assets.”
The H1 performance has also led to FDJ adjusting its full-year guidance.
Following its Q1 results, FDJ stated it expects a slight increase in GGR and a slight decline in revenue for its FY2026, with annual revenue growth for its French lottery and retail sports betting unit.
Additionally, the company said it expected an improvement in the annual performance of its online betting and gaming unit compared to Q1, with a return to GGR growth in H2.
However, the company now anticipates stable GGR for the full year for its lottery and retail sports betting unit, as well as its online betting and gaming unit. It expects the revenue decline to be in the low single-digits.
FDJ posted an adjusted net profit of €180 million in H1, with the company vowing to optimise its resource allocation moving forward.
