FDJ United has announced a full market review of its online betting and gaming operations, signalling potential divestments and regional exits across multiple jurisdictions.
The announcement came as part of the company’s H1 2026 results report, which revealed significant financial pressure driven by rising gambling taxes across Europe.
Stéphane Pallez, president and CEO of FDJ United, commented: “The group’s performance in the first half of the year continued to be impacted by increased taxes.”
Gross gaming revenue fell 1.3% year-on-year, while net revenue suffered a steeper decline of 4.5%, reflecting the compounding effect of higher tax rates across key markets.
EBITDA dropped from €441m in H1 2025 to €404m, and adjusted net profit fell 19% from €222m to €180m, painting a difficult picture for the first half of the year.
Pallez also cited the impact of “exceptional heatwaves, which have weighed on traffic at points of sale in France” as an additional factor behind the subdued performance.
The review covers FDJ’s online betting and gaming business unit, which spans the UK, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Italy, and all other markets where Kindred held licences.
FDJ completed its €2.45bn acquisition of Kindred Group in October 2024, bringing brands including Unibet and 32Red into the wider group alongside FDJ’s established lottery operations.
The cumulative effect of tax increases in France, the UK, the Netherlands, and Romania totalled nearly €24m and led to a 7.4% fall in net revenue to €431m within the online unit.
Excluding the Netherlands and UK from the overall results, GGR actually rose 6.6% and net revenue was up 0.6%, highlighting where the heaviest tax burdens are concentrated.
The Netherlands has been particularly challenging, with Q1 seeing a 15% year-on-year GGR decline, though that figure improved to a 4.1% decline by Q2, suggesting some recovery momentum.
In the UK, remote gaming duty jumped from 21% to 40% from April 2026, with remote betting tax set to rise further from 15% to 25% in 2027, compounding the operating environment significantly.
Despite this, the report notes that an “ongoing action plan will begin to yield results by the end of 2026,” suggesting the UK is not necessarily a market FDJ intends to abandon.
The report also states that the “new management team is committed to implementing action plans designed to gradually restore performance, notably by turning around operations in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.”
Beyond online gaming, non-core assets within FDJ’s payments and services business unit appear most firmly in the crosshairs when it comes to potential disposals.
Assets that could fall into this category include Aleda, Bimedia, and L’Addition, all payment services acquired by FDJ over the past seven years, prior to the Kindred deal.
The payments and services arm generated just €30m in revenue and recorded an EBITDA loss of €3m, making a compelling financial case for a strategic exit from that segment.
By comparison, the lottery and retail sports betting units remain the backbone of FDJ, generating €3.43bn and €1.24bn in revenue respectively for H1 2026.
The online betting and gaming division itself drew €702m in GGR, underscoring its scale even as tax-driven headwinds continue to erode its profitability margins.
FDJ’s review process is expected to provide clearer direction on asset sales and market exits as the group seeks to stabilise revenue and optimise the allocation of its resources going forward.
