GameAccount targets France in European expansion

GameAccount announced its first move into the French market earlier this month with a white-label agreement with online sport lifestyle marketplace Born.com, under which GameAccount's most popular skill games such as dominoes, multiplayer blackjack and backgammon will be made available to both UK and French users.

The French free-to-play version of the site is due to go live on December 1st ahead of the country's planned liberalisation of the online gaming market next year.

The launch into the new territory will be spearheaded by Eric Guedj, who was appointed GameAccount’s French Country Manager in September. With a strong background in international gaming which has seen him launch the World Series of Backgammon in 2006 and most recently serving as project manager for Partouche Interactive, Guedj will be responsible for local business development and government liaison.

"It’s a very exciting role and I’m pleased to be working with GameAccount at such an important time both for the company and for French skill gaming in general," said Eric Guedj. "The success with which the Italian network developed puts a lot of pressure on us to achieve a similar rate of growth, but it’s a challenge that we are confident about and very well equipped to meet."

GameAccount hopes to replicate its success in Italy, which has seen the company secure agreements with over 60 % of the country’s licensed gaming operators including Snai, Sisal, Cogetech, and Lottomatica over the past year.

The company said that it plans to offer localised games to the French market such as Belote which is slated for development next year, replicating the success of localised games in Italy such as Briscola and Sette e Mezzo.

"This strategy of setting up local partnerships in the new jurisdictions, especially with major incumbent organisations, like SNAI and our other partners in Italy, is to be rolled out across Europe in line with new gaming policies," said Kevin Dale, GameAccount CEO.

"The French territory is our next priority and Eric will be working with potential partners and the French government to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible. We have every belief that our portfolio of skill games will be as popular as they are elsewhere – if not more so."