SPS Betting France Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Malta-based Kindred Group, and Betclic Enterprises Limited became the latest online poker operators to be granted a shared liquidity license from the French online gambling regulator, ARJEL.

SPS Betting operates the Unibet.fr online gambling website in France, which offers online poker, among other products. As for Betclic, it is a French online gambling group operating online sports betting, casino games, and online poker through its subsidiaries.

ARJEL said in press releases from Thursday that the two operators will be able to participate in the online shared liquidity project as long as they make sure that their operations are fully compliant with the conditions set in the shared liquidity agreement signed by the regulators of France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal in the summer of 2017.

Under the terms of SPS Betting Betclic’s shared liquidity licenses, the operators will be able to merge their player pools only in the countries that participate in the scheme as long as they are licensed to operate there.

The operators’ software for sharing poker liquidity needs to be approved by the regulators of the jurisdictions where they would operate shared poker tables. SPS Betting and Betclic would also have to inform regulators about any changes that might occur in relation to their participation in the shared liquidity project, under their newly-issued licenses.

Kindred Group (previously Unibet Group) acquired SPS Betting France in late 2011 for the amount of €5.625 million plus net cash adjustment of €1.5 million. Prior to the transaction, the French operator managed the EurosportBet and EurosportPoker brands in its domestic market. SPS Betting’s platform was then rebranded to Unibet.fr.

As mentioned above, SPS Betting and Betclic became the latest operators to be issued a shared liquidity license since December, when PokerStars received regulatory approval from ARJEL to participate in the project. Winamax, the major French poker operator, was the next to be given the nod for the scheme in February.

PokerStars launched shared Franco-Spanish tables in January to mark the official start of the shared liquidity project. The operator is now gearing up to include its Portuguese player pool to its PokerStars Europe network.

Portugal’s shared liquidity technical standards framework was published in the country’s Official Journal last month. PokerStars informed its Portuguese players shortly after that it would first need to integrate the Seat Me feature in order to be able to open its European network for them. The integration was completed on March 6, but, according to local poker news outlets, software certifications need to be obtain before player pooling can begin.

Rafi Ashkenazi, CEO of The Stars Group, parent company of PokerStars, has recently said that they expect that Portugal will be able to join the shared liquidity scheme in the second quarter of the year. The same goes for Italy, which is yet to publish its technical standards framework.

The recently held general election in the country delayed its progress in relation to the shared liquidity project and it is believed that further delays might occur as Italian lawmakers seem to be trudging through the task of forming a new government.

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