In an investor presentation on 26 March Tipico and Betclic parent Banijay Entertainment reiterated its confidence in the highly-regulated European markets it currently operates in.
The operator reported in its investor deck that Betclic maintains the number one position for online betting in France, while Tipico holds the top spot in Germany across betting. Tipico’s Admiral betting business also operates a strong leading position in Austria, the group said.
Banijay said its Tipico acquisition, first announced in October last year, “strengthened its leadership in sports betting and gaming by adding two new countries with leading positions”.
Group CEO François Riahi said Europe remained “the largest and one of the most attractive regions globally for the business”.
According to Riahi, Europe represented “half of the global [gaming] market, which importantly, and unlike the US, was characterised by greater regulatory visibilty and stability”. The CEO noted that operating in highly regulated markets strengthened the predictability of their business model.
Notably, France, Germany and Austria are considered among the more restrictive markets in Europe. France does not legally allow iGaming, while Germany has been plagued with tough player restrictions including stake and deposit limits and a vast black market.
At present, a single licence is available in Austria for lotteries and online gaming products. This 15-year permit is held by Austrian Lotteries’ brand Win2day – a subsidiary of Casinos Austria, which also holds all 12 land-based casino licences.
Tier ones consolidating in heavily-regulated markets
But this push among leading gaming groups in Europe to prioritise heavily-regulated markets appears to be part of a broader trend. FDJ United, which acquired Kindred last year, has made similar moves to consolidate the sector in these markets.
This strategy supports the trajectory of tier one players consolidating the sector as smaller operators struggle to navigate tax hikes amid tightening restrictions across the continent.
Speaking to iGB on this subject last November, veteran gambling strategist Vaughan Lewis said: “This demonstrates that significant value creation is being driven by regulated markets. Regulatory challenges create barriers to entry, which tends to increase the value and sustainability of the leading operators.”
Speaking to investors, Banijay’s Riahi said the operator’s current markets were underpinned by robust frameworks to protect established players. This, he said, creates meaningful barriers to entry and reduces the risk of disruptions.
Excluding the black market, he estimated Europe’s gambling sector was worth 44% of the global €97 billion in GGR in 2024.
He said he thought France, Germany, Austria, Poland and Portugal were currently underserved markets. In the former he said he expected a 5-7x growth opportunity from a market of three million players to up to twenty million.
Banijay is targeting €100 million in synergies between Tipico and Betclic in the mid-term, broken down into €70 million opex and approximately €30 million in capex synergies.
Germany regulation ‘too tough’
Despite his confidence in European growth, the Banijay CEO did lament the challenging regulatory landscape in Germany, answering questions raised by analysts.
“Germany is a country where regulation is too tough, and you have a part of the market which is still the black market with no protection,” he said.
But Riahi said it was the sector’s role to work with policymakers to tackle growing black market threats.
“It’s the same in France when it comes to iGaming so we believe that with our new European dimension it will be our job to try to convince governments that it is in no-one’s interest to have a black market developing when regulation is too stringent and is here to protect,” he noted.
Germany’s regulator recently reported its black market only accounted for 23% of the total market size. However, stakeholders warned this was an overly “conservative” estimate and the actual number was closer to 50%.
On prediction markets Riahi said Banijay’s brands had not experienced any leakage across sports betting in Europe. He noted regulation across Europe was heavily restrictive of novelty and non-sports markets and so prediction markets had no room for development in the region.
Nicole Macedo
Nicole cut her teeth in local news rooms at home in Gibraltar, and helped to establish the peninsula’s first online-only broadcaster.
