Bet365 has officially launched its online poker offering in France, adding one of the gambling industry’s biggest brands to the country’s regulated poker market.
The British operator’s French poker room has gone live on Playtech’s iPoker Europe network, according to Poker Industry PRO, connecting Bet365 players with the network’s existing shared player pool.
It marks the latest stage of Bet365’s expansion into France after the company launched its sports betting operation in the country earlier this year.
Bet365 Adds Poker to Its French Expansion
Bet365 officially entered the French regulated gambling market on May 26, initially launching sports betting through Bet365.fr.
Poker was always expected to follow.
France’s Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) granted Hillside (New Media Malta) PLC, the company behind Bet365’s French operation, additional approval for online poker and horse racing in May.
The ANJ now lists Bet365 as licensed for sports betting, horse racing betting and “jeux de cercle,” the regulatory category covering online poker in France.
That approval has now turned into a live poker product.
Rather than attempting to establish an isolated player base of its own, Bet365 has connected its French players to the iPoker Europe network.
What Is the iPoker Europe Network?
iPoker is the long-running online poker network operated by Playtech.
Instead of every poker brand having to generate enough traffic to fill its own cash tables and tournaments, multiple operators can use the iPoker software and share liquidity.
For players, that means someone entering through Bet365 can potentially sit at the same tables as players accessing the network through another participating operator.
That shared liquidity is particularly important in online poker. More players generally means more active cash tables, larger tournament fields and a wider selection of games running throughout the day.
Poker Industry PRO reports that Bet365 joins nine other sites already connected to iPoker Europe.
The network has also been expanding elsewhere. Earlier in 2026, Entain brands Bwin and GiocoDigitale completed their migration to iPoker in Italy following the closure of PartyPoker’s remaining Italian network.
Bet365 Is a Major New Name for French Online Poker
The significance of the launch goes beyond simply adding another poker room.
Bet365 is one of the world’s largest online gambling operators, claiming more than 120 million customers across its regulated markets worldwide.
France, meanwhile, already has an established online poker ecosystem.
That makes Bet365’s decision to use shared iPoker liquidity particularly interesting. Building a poker room is one thing. Building enough liquidity to compete with established operators is considerably harder.
Joining an existing network gives Bet365 immediate access to a functioning poker ecosystem rather than requiring the company to populate every cash table and tournament exclusively with its own French customers.
It also gives Playtech another internationally recognized gambling brand on its European poker network.
Can Bet365 Challenge France’s Biggest Poker Rooms?
That is the bigger question.
France has historically been one of Europe’s most important regulated online poker markets, with established operators already competing heavily for players.
Bet365 does, however, bring something few new poker rooms can match: enormous brand recognition and an existing customer acquisition machine covering sports betting and other regulated gambling products.
The company can now introduce poker to French customers who may already have a Bet365 account for sports or horse racing.
Shared liquidity also removes one of the biggest problems facing a new poker operator. Players are far less likely to stick around if they download a poker client only to find empty tables or tournaments struggling to attract entries.
Through iPoker Europe, Bet365 does not have to solve that problem alone.
Another Boost for iPoker in Europe
The launch is also another positive development for Playtech’s iPoker business.
The network has been steadily consolidating its position across regulated European markets, including France, Spain and Italy.
Bet365 itself is not new to the iPoker ecosystem. The operator has offered poker through Playtech’s network in other regulated markets, making the French launch more of an expansion of an existing relationship than an entirely new partnership.
For French players, however, Bet365 Poker is a new option.
And for the wider industry, having a gambling brand of Bet365’s size actively launching poker in a major European regulated market is notable at a time when several operators have reduced or abandoned their poker operations.
The question now is how aggressively Bet365 will promote poker in France and whether its huge sportsbook customer base can translate into meaningful new traffic for iPoker Europe.
