Orange Mobile and French gambling monopoly team up

UK mobile network Orange has joined the many companies lining up for French partnerships in anticipation of a liberated French gambling market.

The network has signed a three-year deal with the state gambling monopoly Francaise Des Jeux which will enable it to incorporate online sports betting into its Internet, mobile and television portals.

Users of Orange.fr will be offered direct access to FDJ’s sports betting website at ParionsWeb.FDJeux.net within the domain’s sports and gambling section while lottery games are also to be made available.

Orange mobile subscribers will also be given access to FDJ’s sports betting and lottery services while viewers of the Orange Sport and Orange Sport Info channels will be empowered to bet with the operator before the end of 2010, legal and regulatory provisions permitting.

FdesJ and Orange will also develop innovative interactive content and services for viewers of its channels, the companies announced this week.

The announcement continued: “The integration of online sports betting will enable Orange to further enhance its sports and gaming worlds and offer an entertaining and responsible service relying on the know-how of FDJ.

“This three-year partnership is in line with the group’s network publisher strategy, which is designed to enable content editors who have a partnership with Orange to benefit from the interactive capabilities of group’s networks.”