PartyPoker, PMU get French okay for online poker liquidity sharing

France’s gaming regulator has approved two more companies for cross-border online poker liquidity sharing, including the local operations of PartyPoker.

On Friday, French regulator ARJEL published notices indicating that two of its online gambling licensees, B.E.S. SAS and Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU), had been granted authorization to share online poker liquidity with the three other European Union member states that have agreed to share their regulated market’s online poker players.

PMU is a French racing and sports betting operator, but it also operates its own online poker site via the Poker.pmu.fr domain. B.E.S. SAS is the local subsidiary of Bwin, the marquee sports betting brand of UK-listed operator GVC Holdings, which also controls the PartyPoker online poker brand. GVC previewed its cross-border liquidity plans in February.

While PMU has yet to establish a Spanish poker license, GVC operates both the Bwin and PartyPoker brands in Spain’s regulated online gambling market. Spain is one of the other three countries, along with Italy and Portugal, that joined France in the four-way online poker liquidity deal signed last summer.