France’s Autorité de la concurrence has cleared Banijay Gaming’s acquisition of JOA, the country’s second-largest casino operator, without conditions.

The competition authority announced the decision on 4 November following a phase one review. Banijay Gaming, the Betclic owner, notified the deal on 7 October. The decision, numbered 26-DCC-215, is formally recorded as the acquisition of exclusive control of JOA by Lov Group, the holding company that controls Banijay. The full text has not yet been published.

The review took less than a month from notification, comfortably inside the 25 working days allowed for a phase one examination, and the authority accepted the deal without requiring commitments or disposals.

A first for the regulator

The Autorité said the transaction was the first time it had examined a deal creating an operator active in both land-based casinos and online gambling in France.

There was no horizontal overlap to assess, as the Lov Group was not active in the French casino sector. The authority also declined to analyse the deal on the basis that online casino might be legalised in France, saying it did not consider that scenario sufficiently plausible. Online casino games remain prohibited in the French market, where licensed online gambling is limited to sports betting, horse racing and poker.

Its main concern was conglomerate effects. The Autorité treated online poker and land-based casino table games, including poker, as related markets because they share a player base, and examined whether the combined group could pursue an omnichannel strategy that ties online and casino offers together commercially.

It concluded that the deal would not harm competition, pointing to the parties’ market shares, the presence of major competitors and the small share of poker in JOA’s casino business.

The deal

Banijay Gaming announced in July that it had committed to buy JOA from funds managed by Blackstone and Kings Park Capital under a put option agreement. The price was not disclosed.

The put option structure is common in French acquisitions. It allows consultation with employee representatives to take place before a binding sale agreement is signed, with the buyer committed to proceed if the sellers exercise the option.

JOA operates 33 casinos in France and generated approximately €430m in gross revenues in 2025, a figure that combines gross gaming revenue with leisure and hospitality income. It employs more than 2,050 people. Banijay Gaming will own 100% of the business, financed through a mix of equity and debt, and Laurent Lassiaz will remain chairman.

Banijay Gaming is led by Antoine Jouteau, who was appointed chief executive of the division in July, shortly after the JOA agreement was announced.

The acquisition gives Betclic’s parent a physical estate alongside its online sports betting and poker brands, and positions the group to cross-sell between the two channels. Betclic is one of the leading online operators in France, where competition in online poker is also shifting: Betsson France this week won an ANJ poker licence and clearance to share liquidity.

Remaining steps

Merger clearance was one of several conditions. Banijay said in July that completion, expected in the second half of 2026, was also subject to consultation with JOA’s employee representatives and to casino gaming regulatory approvals. The group has not yet announced completion.

The Autorité’s decision can still be appealed. With the competition hurdle cleared unconditionally, attention turns to the casino licensing approvals and to whether the combined group can turn its online and land-based footprint into a meaningful advantage in a French market that still bars online casino.

Super Group has lowered its full-year 2026 outlook after customer-friendly sports results dented its third quarter, even as revenue from Africa grew 17% and the Betway and Spin owner launched a new $150m share buyback.

The NYSE-listed group reported revenue of $611m for the three months to 30 September, up 10% from $557m a year earlier, according to its third-quarter results published on 3 November. Adjusted EBITDA rose 8% to $165m, a margin of 27%, and profit climbed about 48% to $142m.

The profit figure was flattered by two one-off items: the release of a $17m remote gaming duty provision and $17m of recovered Austrian gaming tax. Monthly active customers rose 9% to 6.0 million.

Africa leads the way

Africa remained the group’s growth engine. Revenue in the region rose 17% to $262m and adjusted EBITDA increased about 22% to $88m, a margin of roughly 34%. Africa now accounts for 43% of segment revenue, up from 41% a year earlier. Betway’s partnership with Manchester United in Africa began with the new football season.

The International segment, which covers Europe, the Americas and the rest of the world, generated revenue of $344m, up from $328m, and adjusted EBITDA of $93m, up from $75m. Europe contributed $115m, the Americas $193m and the rest of the world $36m.

By product, iGaming revenue grew about 12% to $515m, while sportsbook revenue was flat at $90m. Chief executive Neal Menashe described the quarter as further proof of the company’s approach. “Q3 once again demonstrated the strength and resilience of our casino-led business model,” he said.

Sports results hit guidance

Super Group said favourable outcomes for bettors cost it about $40m of revenue and about $25m of adjusted EBITDA in the quarter. On its earnings call, as reported by the trade press, management put the sports margin at 12.1% against a 24-month average of 13.7%.

As a result, the company now expects full-year revenue of $2.525bn to $2.575bn and adjusted EBITDA of $700m to $720m. At the half-year stage in August it had guided to revenue above $2.6bn and EBITDA above $710m.

Buyback and cash

The board approved a new repurchase programme of up to $150m on 30 October, running until December 2027. Super Group has paid $203m in dividends in the first nine months of the year and ended the quarter with $602m of cash.

The update lands in a week of heavy reporting for listed operators, and it shows the split now running through the sector. Casino-weighted groups with exposure to faster-growing markets in Africa are holding up better than peers more dependent on sportsbook margins and on markets facing tax rises.

Austria’s plan to open its online gambling market to multiple licensees has been held up at EU level after Malta lodged a detailed opinion against the draft law, extending the standstill period by a month.

The reform, notified to the European Commission on 4 August as a “Federal Act amending the Gambling Act and the Telecommunications Act 2021”, was due to clear its three-month standstill on 5 November. Following Malta’s intervention the standstill now runs to 7 December, according to the EU’s TRIS database, where the measure is listed as notification 2026/0415/AT.

A detailed opinion obliges the notifying member state to respond to the objections raised and explain how it will address them. The content of Malta’s opinion has not been published. Malta hosts many of the online operators that currently serve Austrian players without a domestic licence.

What the reform does

The bill, presented by the Finance Ministry in August, would end the monopoly of the state lottery’s online brand win2day and replace it with an open concession system for online gambling. Operators that keep serving Austria without a licence after 1 January 2027 would be barred from applying for 18 months, rising to 24 months from 2030.

Applicants would also have to settle unpaid taxes and outstanding player claims. The ministry has said about 20,000 players are affected by such claims. Enforcement powers include network blocking of illegal sites, payment blocking and a blacklist, which is why the Telecommunications Act is being amended alongside the Gambling Act.

Player protection measures include a central deposit limit that applies across operators, with lower limits for 18 to 26-year-olds, a central exclusion register and a 72-hour wait before a player can raise a self-set limit. Slot machines would get lower stakes and a mandatory break after 90 minutes of play.

The bill also reduces the number of land-based casino concessions from 15 to 13 and allows them to be awarded in packages, setting the frame for the coming tender. Casinos Austria named Andreas Bierwirth as its next chief executive last month ahead of that process.

Other submissions

Malta’s opinion is not the only pushback. Stakeholder contributions on the TRIS file include one from Aleatrust, which objects to cutting the casino concessions, to awarding them in packages, and to extending the existing concessions by statute to the end of 2028 with a possible further 24 months. Allwyn, the majority owner of Casinos Austria, has also filed a contribution through its lawyers.

Industry lawyers do not expect the delay to derail the schedule. “In principle, the timeline remains the same: the passage of the amendments is still expected before Christmas 2026,” Arthur Stadler of Vienna firm Stadler Partner told iGaming Business.

Next steps

Parliament is expected to pass the bill between 9 and 11 December, after the extended standstill expires, with entry into force planned for 1 January 2027. Licence applications would open on that date and the new online licences would take effect on 1 October 2027, when win2day’s current concession ends. How Vienna answers Malta’s objections, and whether the Commission weighs in, will decide whether that timetable holds.