La Française des Jeux: French Competition Authority authorises ZEturf takeover subject to conditions

The French Competition Authority (Autorité de la concurrence) has authorised the acquisition of the ZEturf group, an operator of online horse betting and online sports betting under the ZEbet brand, by La Française des Jeux (FDJ), "subject to conditions," on 15/09/2023. FDJ had officially acquired ZEturf on 17/11/2022, after announcing that it had entered into exclusive negotiations with the operator on 19/09/2022.

The regulator has identified competition problems that are likely to arise from FDJ's monopoly on lottery games (online and at points of sale) and sports betting at points of sale. "FDJ has entered into behavioural remedies to address the risks of harm to competition identified by the Autorité," explained the body.

FDJ has therefore undertaken to:
• not exploit its monopoly on gaming activities (online and point of sale lottery games and point of sale sports betting) to develop competitive games (online horse and sports betting);
• to clearly separate its monopolistic gaming activities from its competitive gaming activities, in particular by setting up separate websites…