FDJ enters negotiations to acquire horse racing and sports betting group ZEturf

France’s national lottery and gaming operator La Française des Jeux (FDJ) announced Monday it has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire ZEturf group, as a part of a strategy to bolster its presence in the French online gaming market. 

The takeover intends to cover areas where the company does not yet operate, namely horse racing betting and poker. This transaction is subject to approval by the relevant authorities, the operator noted.

Founded in 2001, ZEturf group operates in the online horse race betting market and in the online sports betting market under the ZEbet brand. The firm has around 100 employees and recorded nearly €800 million ($798.5 million) in bets in 2021, including more than €100 million ($99.8 million) in B2B bets, added FDJ.

Online horse race betting accounts for more than 50% of ZEturf’s B2C bets, making it France’s second-largest operator in this segment, with a market share of around 20%. ZEturf also operates in the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.

FDJ calls itself the #2 lottery in Europe. The company also offers sports betting under the ParionsSport brand. Earlier this year, sports technology company Sportradar began providing ParionsSport's online sports betting segment with artificial intelligence-driven, near-live premium sports video content in the form of thirty-second clips of key moments from matches.  

La Française des Jeux's announcement of talks to purchase ZEturf follows reports of similar exclusive negotiations with Aleda, a point-of-sale and payments provider; and the acquisition of payments specialist L'Addition. FDJ intends to bay the businesses as part of its development strategy for its payment and services business.