Betclic, Kindred win French okay for online poker liquidity sharing

Online gambling operators Kindred Group and Betclic Everest Group are the latest to receive European Union online poker liquidity sharing approval from French gaming regulators.

On Thursday, French regulator Arjel granted approval to Betclic Enterprises Ltd and Kindred’s SPS Betting France Ltd to share online poker cash games liquidity with the other three EU member states – Italy, Portugal and Spain – that entered into a four-way poker liquidity-sharing pact last summer.

Betclic is a homegrown French operator while Kindred entered the market in 2011 via its acquisition of SPS, which at the time operated the Eurosportbet brands, before rebranding under Kindred’s flagship Unibet identity.

To date, The Stars Group’s flagship PokerStars brand is the only operator to launch cross-border liquidity between its French- and Spanish-licensed sites. French operator Winamax received its liquidity-sharing approval from Arjel in February and the site reportedly plans to launch its French-Spanish pool as early as next month, assuming Spanish regulators approve the company’s local license application.